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Company sentenced following safety breaches

July 15 2016

A galvanising firm has been sentenced after safety breaches caused a worker to suffer severe injuries.

A worker was operating an overhead crane to lift a bundle of mesh panels. The lifting wires tied around the bundle snapped on one side, causing the panels to swing down and strike his leg, knocking him to the ground.

The worker suffered fractures to his left leg and foot following the accident in June 2015.

Due to the size of the mesh panels, they had to be double dipped in the tank of molten zinc. This caused the ties around the bundle to become brittle, leading to the accident.

Bradford Magistrates’ Court heard that loads had fallen from overhead cranes before, when wire ties had not been properly tied to the items being moved and had become loose. Employees had not been told about the safe working load limits of the wire ties or the safe methods of tying the wires.

T&D Galvanising Ltd, Bradford, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £9,000 with £1,379 costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Andrea Jones said: “No checks were made to ensure that employees were aware and understood that wire ties should not be reused after being dipped into the zinc tank.

“This accident could have had fatal consequences. This demonstrates the importance of planning lifting operations and training of employees to ensure safe methods are followed.”