IN COURT

Company ordered to pay over £847k following second fatality at site A Staffordshire animal rendering and food waste recycling company has been fined £660,000 after a self-employed contractor died after being scalded as he tried to fix an industrial cooker. In 2004 another worker died at the same site when he entered a confined space without proper precautions being taken. In the more recent incident in November 2011 Mark Bullock, 50, of Milton, Stoke on Trent, was carrying out repairs inside the cooker at John Pointon & Sons Ltd. While he was inside, steam from elsewhere in the system fed into the area where he was working. He was badly scalded and died in hospital the following day from his injuries. An investigation by HSE found Mr Bullock was allowed to enter the cooker without the proper precautions being taken. The company had not properly considered the risks of entering the cooker, had failed to put in place a safe system of work, and did not competently manage the work as it was taking place. On Monday 29 June 2015, John Pointon & Sons Ltd, of Bones Lane, Cheddleton, Leek, was fined £660,000 and ordered to pay a further £187,632 in costs at Stafford Crown Court after pleading guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. After sentencing HSE inspector Wayne Owen said: “The cookers in operation at the company form the core part of the business. Steam and hot vapours getting into the cookers from other connected pieces of equipment is foreseeable, and precautions should have been taken to ensure all avenues which had the potential to allow steam to be fed back into the cooker had been suitably isolated. “John Pointon and Sons Ltd failed to do this and it cost Mark Bullock his life. “Work in confined spaces can be extremely dangerous, which John Pointon & Sons Ltd were fully aware of, having already had a fatality at the site. Companies must identify what measures should be taken to ensure the safety of their workforce. I would urge any company that carries out work in confined spaces to double check their procedures.” Mr Bullock’s partner of 27 years, Christine Knowles said: “Mark had a great passion for life. In some ways he never grew up. He loved fairgrounds and holidays and loved to sing and dance. He had an extremely generous nature and a wicked sense of humour. “To die that young is a tragedy. He was so fit and healthy. In 2009 we moved to a beautiful house on the canal. He built a balcony and bought a boat and had hoped to retire early. We had started to really look forward to retirement and lazy sunny days on or near the water. “Mark’s friends put some money together and have had a tribute put up at the site – a tree and a stone with the inscription “How difficult can it be?” He was a practical man and used to say that a lot. “The company should have made sure that Mark was safe. Every company should do the same for their workers. Mark was a great man. He touched many people’s hearts and broke mine when he died.” Supermarket convicted after woman loses leg A supermarket has been convicted of breaching health and safety law after an incident in January 2013 in which a woman had to have her leg amputated after she was hit by a lorry in the store’s delivery yard. Patricia Cox, 62, was walking across the car park by the main entrance to Jempson’s store in Main Street, Peasmarsh, near Rye, when she was struck by an 18-tonne delivery lorry. The vehicle was in the process of trying to reverse into the store’s delivery yard, executing a manoeuvre which was allowed to occur regularly in front of the store entrance. Mrs Cox was airlifted to hospital, but lost her left leg and suffered severe and permanent damage to her other leg and arm after being dragged under the front right wheel of the lorry. Jempson’s Ltd denied breaching section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, but was convicted by a jury following a prosecution by Rother District Council and a two-week trial at Lewes Crown Court. Jurors heard evidence from logistics firms who said the supermarket’s delivery yard was cluttered and the access road to it narrowed by cars parked on double yellow lines, meaning lorries had to reverse into the yard. The court heard that Jempson’s, part of a group of companies which owns eight shops and cafes across the Rother area, knew about the risk posed by lorries reversing in the busy pedestrian area by the entrance to the Peasmarsh store, but failed to implement reasonably practicable measures to reduce the risk of an accident. Cllr Ian Hollidge, Rother District Council cabinet member for environment, transport and public realm, said:“This was a truly horrific accident which has had life-changing implications for Mrs Cox. “It’s the clear responsibility of companies and organisations which deal with the public to do everything they reasonably can to minimise risks to their customers.“The jury found that this company did not do that and agreed with our view that this was a case where more could and should have been done to reduce the risk of an accident like this occurring.“This conviction should send out a clear message of the importance of taking prompt and effective action when a risk to health and safety is identified.” Sentencing will take place next month.

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