Prosecution over operative fatality throws spotlight on site safety.
C&D Consultancy’s John Woodward has very kindly forwarded us details of a company from Omagh in Northern Ireland that has been fined £30000.00 for breaches of Health & Safety Regulations. The case was brought against PFG Plant Hire Ltd after Oliver Rutledge died when part of a wall that he was demolishing fell onto him. Another employee sustained minor injuries.
The accident happened at a construction site in County Tyrone in January 2008.
The HSE Northern Ireland (HSENI) said that the company had not completed a sufficient risk assessment and that they had not developed an adequate safe system of work for their employees.
“It is vital that all companies properly identify and address hazards within the workplace and implement systems to minimise and control risks” said Kevin Campbell of HSENI. “These systems need to be communicated to the workforce, implemented, maintained, and updated when necessary”.
“CDM 2007 was supposed to help to reduce fatalities,” John Woodward concludes. “But once again we have a death that could have been prevented by use of trained, competent labour and a full understanding of their CDM duties by a principal contractor.”
