The Accident: A person sustained a head /eye injury whilst playing basketball in a leisure facility. The basketball hoop fractured and fell into the person’s eye. Hospital treatment was needed.
Findings: The initial investigation by our client suggested that the person was too rough and knocked the basketball hoop too hard. However, when we followed this up our expert health and safety consultant identified that the equipment was not in pristine condition when received and some parts had needed replacement by the supplier when it first arrived. The equipment did not appear to be manufactured to any known equipment standard and was purchased as it was the cheapest.
The Accident: A person sadly suffered a fatality whilst responding to an emergency call-out to repair the lift. He was crushed under the lift car whilst in the base area.
Findings: The HSE were involved and the premises manager was initially under caution for manslaughter. Our expert health and safety consultant who is also an Expert Witness worked in collaboration with the inspector. The root causes were established. These included a need to improve site access to contractors, but the main root related to the lift engineering company’s systems included a lack of consideration of fitness to work for the operative who was working alone in a confined space.
The Accident: There was an accident asbestos disturbance at a client’s premises and workers as well as contractors were exposed. Staff were very upset and some thought they had been subjected to a death sentence as a result.
Findings: Initially the Estates Director was put under disciplinary proceedings by the organisation. The Board were looking for early (and potentially easy) answers to assure workers and other stakeholders.
Our investigation was very deep and extended into three levels of contractor and sub-contractor activity. Detailed analysis of the asbestos surveys, asbestos management plans and contractor management occurred.
The root causes included poor asbestos surveys by the provider, which our client had depended on, the practice of allowing sub-contracting without monitoring of controls and sharing of information and lack of understanding about emergency response at a local level (it was a muti-site organisation).
The Accident: A customer fell onto the floor and sustained a shoulder injury. The flooring was smooth and near the reception area. The first aider took 7 minutes to arrive and the person was confused, upset and in pain. The injured person submitted a claim for her injury..
Findings: Fortunately, one of our expert health and safety consultants was on site at the time and was immediately in the vicinity of the accident. She stayed with the injured person, placing them in the recovery position and assessing their condition until the first aider arrived. Our consultant took photographs of the person’s footwear, the flooring and the surrounding environment, and was able to obtain details of immediate witnesses as well as other bystanders who heard the commotion.
The injured person appeared to be having a medical episode, and this information was shared with the medics who arrived.
We supported our client with a detailed accident investigation, including environmental conditions at the time, the person’s footwear as well as the flooring (with photographic evidence) and witness statements. The claim was not pursued, and happily, the injured person received medical attention which resulted in a medical condition being diagnosed which triggered the person to fall
