Engineering Firm fined £30,000

On 12 July 2016, Point Engineering (Hull) Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and was fined £30,000 at Hull Crown Court.

In February 2014, an employee of Point Engineering, Richard Blake, was preparing a marine hatch, weighing more than 500kg, for inspection using an overhead crane. The marine door then fell onto Mr Blake, landing on his pelvis and legs whilst also narrowly missing a surveyor who was stood just one metre away. Mr Blake suffered a shattered pelvis and broken hip as a result of the accident and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the Company, calling these injuries “life changing.”

Despite this being the first such incident at the Company since it was founded 15 years ago, this did not prevent the hefty fine being issued.

Upon conclusion of the hearing, HSE Inspector, Sarah Lee, commented: “if the job had been correctly planned and risk assessed then a safe way of doing the job could have been established. Unfortunately it was not, which lead to Mr Blake suffering these terrible injuries.”

This case is an important lesson for companies.  It demonstrates that, even if an accident is a one time, isolated incident, should such a serious incident occur, companies will be prosecuted accordingly. It is important therefore that the correct risk assessments and safe working practices are in place to prevent such an incident occurring.