03.10.2008

Corus fined after crane accident

It is reported that steel maker Corus has been fined £5,000 after a crane operator was struck by a 1.7 tonne section of steel tubing when it fell off a crane.

Operator Jonathan Laverick was standing nearby using a remote controlled crane with an electro magnetic attachment to pick up rafts and lift them onto a waiting lorry trailer, before they were driven to the warehouse.

Earlier this month Hartlepool magistrates heard details of the accident that took place on April 27th 2007 at Corus Tubes’ Hartlepool based tube mill. The court was told that square tubes were being fabricated out of 12.5mm thick steel and then cut to length and stacked up on rafts, which could then be lifted by crane.

Bruno Porter, the HSE inspector who investigated the case explained that electro magnetic bars attach themselves at various points along the tubes so that the crane can lift them.

He added that "Magnetic crane attachments are a good thing because they remove the necessity for workers to climb onto the load and attach chains, so avoiding manual handling and working at height. However, they do not always keep hold of the load. They can occasionally fail if there is a power cut, if there is a defect in the tube, or if the load becomes snagged on something, as in this case."

When the crane operator accidentally moved the load in a slightly diagonal direction, one of the seven tubes came into contact with the side of the warehouse, peeled away from the crane’s magnet and fell, hitting the operator.

Corus pleaded guilty to a breach of s2(1) of HSWA 1974 by failing to ensure its employees’ safety. As well as a fine, it was ordered to pay the HSE’s full costs of £6248.

In mitigation, Corus said that the crane driver had been trained, and the company was not taking short cuts in order to save money. Since the incident, a gantry has been installed, so that crane operation is now undertaken from above the height of the load. Lorry drivers are now prevented from entering the danger zone while a lift is taking place.

After the case, a Corus spokesperson said: "We have made improvements to the work area, re-evaluated our processes and focused on enhancing a culture of safety to ensure that there is no repeat of this accident. The health and safety of our employees and contractors is the number-one priority for Corus. We put a lot of effort into creating a safety culture within the organization, and into improving our processes and procedures, to ensure everyone working on our sites is safe."