A hard hat saved site engineer jack mCCann's life, but his employers can consider themselves lucky to be fined just £15,000.
The crucial importance of wearing hard hats in the construction industry is well illustrated by a recent prosecution under the 1974 Act. Construction firm Wilson Bowden Developments was fined £15,000 at Southampton magistrates' court in January 2004 following an incident in which a concrete block struck a site engineer's safety helmet.

Jack McCann was contracted by Wilson Bowden to work at a housing development in Southampton. In May last year he was working at the base of a steel structure that had been erected to form the shell of a building. On the fourth floor of the building an internal wall was under construction. Wilson Bowden had originally planned to erect scaffolding around the entire steel structure before the internal wall was built, to reduce the risk of materials falling from the upper floors. But then the company changed its mind. It decided that the wall could be safely built without external scaffolding because the floor's edges were fitted with guardrails and brick guards.

During the construction work, a block of concrete was knocked off the wall and fell over the edge of the structure, striking McCann on the head. He was protected from serious head injuries by his safety helmet, but he suffered severe neck injuries including two broken vertebrae.

Case for prosecution
The HSE prosecuted, arguing that Wilson Bowden had failed to ensure that a safe system of work was in place to prevent objects falling from the steel structure.

Wilson Bowden should have prevented workers having access to the area below the structure during bricklaying. It could have done this by erecting a security fence fitted with warnings to eliminate the risk of workers being struck by falling objects.

McCann was protected by his helmet but suffered severe neck injuries and two broken vertebrae

Wilson Bowden was fined £15,000 for a breach of section 3(i) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to ensure the safety of non-employees, plus £1100 prosecution costs.

The following points were made in mitigation on behalf of Wilson Bowden:

  • The company pleaded guilty.
  • It now ensures that scaffolding is erected around frame structures before the start of any work at height.

This is a case of 'what ifs' for both employer and employee. If McCann had not been wearing his safety helmet, it appears that he would certainly have suffered severe head injuries and might have been killed. And if that had been the case, Wilson Bowden would have found itself paying a significantly higher fine.

The legal small print
Section 3 of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act sets out the basic health and safety duty of contractors towards workers who are not, technically, employees. This section makes it clear that it is the duty of all employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not employed by them are not exposed to risks to their health or safety. The term "persons not employed by them" is quite broad - it covers subcontractors, the self-employed and members of the public.

Source

Construction Manager