There should always be provisions in place to ensure that employees are not injured by falling equipment or machinery. Of course, these kinds of accidents are often serious – leaving the victims with either severe or fatal injuries.
Health and Safety for this kind of thing is strict as it should never be allowed to happen. Let’s take a look at when an employer can be negligent in this kind of scenario.
If there is any equipment or machinery that is suspended in the air, or is placed on some form of surface where it could fall, it needs to be adequately secured. There are no ifs, buts, or margins for this kind of thing. Whatever happens, that equipment should not be liable to fall and injure someone.
This can apply in all sorts of workplaces and with all sorts of equipment:
- Crane parts on a building site
- Large equipment being moved through the use of a crane
- A printer on a desk in an office
- A coffee machine on a bar in a cafe
With most equipment, it isn’t difficult to ensure it’s secured. But employers must also take in to account whether equipment could move, perhaps through vibrations, when operating. Or where equipment is being moved intentionally, the load must be properly and safely secured to ensure it isn’t going to fall.
There was a recent ruling of accidental death for a case like this according to news reports from the BBC (source). In this tragic and extreme set of circumstances, a young apprentice in South Shields lost his life when he was working for Tyne Slipway and Engineering Co Ltd at South Dock in Sunderland. According to the report, a 970kg tunnel thruster fell from a bench, resulting in fatal injuries.
The company has reportedly been fined £75,000 and was ordered to pay around £48,000 in costs in light of their serious failure to adhere to health and safety legislation.
Generally speaking, health and safety is implied to be rather good in our country, thanks to the numerous rules and regulations we have in place. As such, this kind of thing should never happen. But irrelevant of whether you can say it is an isolated and rare incident or not, a young man lost his life because of something that could have easily been avoided.
Legal advice for work injury claims
If you have bee injured in circumstances involving falling equipment, machinery, or anything else in the workplace, you may have a work injury compensation claim to make for any pain, suffering, and loss caused. Employers are legally bound to have insurance and all we need to do is claim from the insurers for the case.
For work injury claims advice and help, please call 0800 634 7575.
