The Health and Safety Executive found that, after an investigation, father-of-three Russell Hartley would still be alive had this work been planned, managed and monitored to a “sufficient” standard.
The self-employed engineer from Sheffield had been hired by Premier Engineering Projects to replace machinery at the site.
Hartley was in charge of four engineers tasked with replacing a Trisomat screen, known as a ‘flip-flop’, on 24 February 2020, when the incident occurred.
The flip-flop was fixed within a metal structure at height in a bay at the site. The crane, supplied by M&M Mobile Crane Hire, was first used to lower the flip-flop from its position at the site.
Hartley then took over, using a telehandler. With the flip-flop resting on the telehandler’s forks, the machine began to go further down the bay. The flip-flop is said to have become jammed in the bay when Hartley attempted to reverse the telehandler.
The crane was then used again to lift the flip-flop off the telehandler, which unknown to the workers, had its forks slightly raised above ground level, and Hartley was subsequently crushed to death by the Trisomat screen.
Another worker, who was standing on the flip-flop at the time, was thrown off the machine but was said to have escaped “serious injury”.
The HSE investigation found that two contractors, Premier Engineering Projects and M&M Mobile Crane Hire, failed to ensure the safety of those involved in carrying out the replacement of the Trisomat screen.
HSE said the work being undertaken was “not properly planned, supervised or carried out safely”, and the assessment of the risks arising from the work was both unsuitable and insufficient. Hartley was working with nine other engineers, also hired by Premier Engineering Projects, as well as three workers from M&M Mobile Crane Hire at the site.
‘Entirely unavoidable’
Hartley’s wife, Debbie, said in her victim personal statement: “Russell was everything to us. He was funny and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Nothing was ever too much. If it needed doing, he got it done. He was a fantastic father and husband. He worshipped his grandkids and all his family.”
Premier Engineering Projects was fined £28,000 and ordered to pay £9,277.48 in costs.
M&M Mobile Crane pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £48,000 and ordered to pay £9,500 in costs.
HSE inspector Mark Slater, said: “Had this work been planned, managed and monitored to a sufficient standard, this incident was entirely avoidable and Mr Hartley’s family would still have him in their lives. Risks arising from the lifting and moving of equipment of this size and nature are entirely foreseeable, and work of this nature should be afforded the utmost respect and care.”
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