Three companies have been fined a total of £90,000 after a work fell 6 meters off a platform that had no guardrails.

Southwark crown court heard that two workers were tasked with dismantling the top level of a unit at a construction site in London. When a worker slipped and fell over the side of the unguarded platform, hit a wall, then landed on the concrete floor. The worker sustained multiple injuries, including internal bleeding, fractures to his pelvis and right arm, and a collapsed lung. The injuries have left the worker unable to continue working.

 The three companies involved, Meta Management Services, Goss Graphic Systems, and Beck and Pollitzer Engineering Limited all pleaded guilty for a variety of offences.

When you are tasked with working at height, it is vital that you adhere to the working at height regulations 2005. These regulations state that before undergoing any work at height you need to ensure that the work is planned correctly, supervised and completed by competent people, and include using the right working at height equipment. For instance, safety harnesses, fall arrest blocks, anchors points and tool lanyards.

It is down to the employers to ensure that their workers are protected when they are working at height; this means that you need to ensure that collective protection equipment, such as guard rails, are implemented to protect everyone who is at risk, and that your workers are all wearing the appropriate personal protection equipment.

Before undergoing work at height, you must make sure that the weather conditions do not pose any risk of harm to your workers, make sure that it is dry and there is no wind. Ensure that the place where the work is to be undertaken is safe. That it’s not likely to collapse, and objects are not likely to fall from height.

At the first of February the laws regarding the health and safety sentencing changed. This means that companies that are found breaching the health and safety regulations can face serious sentences, and heftier fines when caught.

The introduction to of the new guidelines ensure that the courts rule all health and safety breaches in a standard way. Before the definitive guidelines were introduced, it was often left to the judges to decide the seriousness of the breach and then they came to a sentencing decision. This often led to larger companies not feeling an impact from breaching the health and safety regulations, and small companies put under too much financial strain, and ending up out of business.

The new sentencing guidelines now take into account culpability and harm factors on a scale of 1 – 4 (1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest), and the companies financial information. The sentencing is then broken down into 4 categories depending on the size of the company.

If you are running a large company with a turnover in excess of £50m a year you will incur larger fines (up to £10m) than a micro company.

Because of this change in sentencing, it is now, time to act and purchase the correct equipment to protect your workers while they are working at height.

We urge you all to start protecting your workers whilst they are at height and to purchase the correct equipment. At SafetyLiftinGear we have a whole department dedicated to height safety, containing equipment such as safety harnesses, lanyards, safety lines, anchor points, and more!

We would also like to remind you that on the 10th and 11th February we are attending the Executive Hire Show where we will have a stand dedicated to our height safety range. If you are attending the show, come and visit us at stand D80 and X32.

Three companies have been fined a total of £90,000 after a work fell 6 meters off a platform that had no guardrails.

Southwark crown court heard that two workers were tasked with dismantling the top level of a unit at a construction site in London. When a worker slipped and fell over the side of the unguarded platform, hit a wall, then landed on the concrete floor. The worker sustained multiple injuries, including internal bleeding, fractures to his pelvis and right arm, and a collapsed lung. The injuries have left the worker unable to continue working.

 The three companies involved, Meta Management Services, Goss Graphic Systems, and Beck and Pollitzer Engineering Limited all pleaded guilty for a variety of offences.

When you are tasked with working at height, it is vital that you adhere to the working at height regulations 2005. These regulations state that before undergoing any work at height you need to ensure that the work is planned correctly, supervised and completed by competent people, and include using the right working at height equipment. For instance, safety harnesses, fall arrest blocks, anchors points and tool lanyards.

It is down to the employers to ensure that their workers are protected when they are working at height; this means that you need to ensure that collective protection equipment, such as guard rails, are implemented to protect everyone who is at risk, and that your workers are all wearing the appropriate personal protection equipment.

Before undergoing work at height, you must make sure that the weather conditions do not pose any risk of harm to your workers, make sure that it is dry and there is no wind. Ensure that the place where the work is to be undertaken is safe. That it’s not likely to collapse, and objects are not likely to fall from height.

At the first of February the laws regarding the health and safety sentencing changed. This means that companies that are found breaching the health and safety regulations can face serious sentences, and heftier fines when caught.

The introduction to of the new guidelines ensure that the courts rule all health and safety breaches in a standard way. Before the definitive guidelines were introduced, it was often left to the judges to decide the seriousness of the breach and then they came to a sentencing decision. This often led to larger companies not feeling an impact from breaching the health and safety regulations, and small companies put under too much financial strain, and ending up out of business.

The new sentencing guidelines now take into account culpability and harm factors on a scale of 1 – 4 (1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest), and the companies financial information. The sentencing is then broken down into 4 categories depending on the size of the company.

If you are running a large company with a turnover in excess of £50m a year you will incur larger fines (up to £10m) than a micro company.

Because of this change in sentencing, it is now, time to act and purchase the correct equipment to protect your workers while they are working at height.

We urge you all to start protecting your workers whilst they are at height and to purchase the correct equipment. At SafetyLiftinGear we have a whole department dedicated to height safety, containing equipment such as safety harnesses, lanyards, safety lines, anchor points, and more!

We would also like to remind you that on the 10th and 11th February we are attending the Executive Hire Show where we will have a stand dedicated to our height safety range. If you are attending the show, come and visit us at stand D80 and X32.

If you haven’t heard about the BLOODHOUND Project – where have you been? If you haven't heard about the project - here is the low-down: The Bloodhound project is a complete engineering adventure aimed at getting the next generation interested in mathematics, science, technology and engineering. All while attempting to break the world land speed record with a 1000mph supersonic car.

This project has seen hundreds of sponsors & partners, such as Rolls-Royce and Jaguar, come together and contribute to this amazing project. SafetyLiftinGear have also made our own contributions to the project by supplying them with some of our specialist lifting equipment.

Education is at the very heart of the project and they regularly host family workshops. During the workshops you can expect an interactive presentation explaining the science and engineering behind the BLOODHOUND SCC and an exciting tour of the workshop, as well as seeing the car itself! If that wasn’t enough, they also offer practical workshops, where your child can build their own super cars out of foam (capable of reaching speeds of 55mph!), before heading out to the car park for a race.

So if you are looking for something educational, exhilarating fun this half term, head on down to the BLOODHOUND technical centre, Avonmouth, Bristol. The workshops are held from Wednesday 10th February to Friday 19th February.

Click here to read more about the Bloodhound Rocket Car Experience and book your tickets today! 

Here at SafetyLiftinGear, we are constantly improving our lines to ensure that they constantly complement each other.  We currently supply a wide range of lever hoists, electric hoists, chain hoists, and material lifting equipment to various companies around the UK. Our range of Girder clamps complement these large product lines.  

Girder clamps are used when you may require a temporary or semi- permanent hoist anchor point, for overhead lifting or various vertical rigging applications. These diverse girder clamps can also provide solutions for holding and positioning girders whilst being used in construction, as a below the hook device.  SafetyLiftinGear’s fully adjustable girder clamps feature a pivoting eye, to attach a hoist with ease, a special clamp jaw design which applies the load away from the flange edge, reducing the stress imposed on the girder flange. You can adjust our girder clamps to fit most Girders by simply by turning the central threaded bar.

Our Girder clamps are extremely robust and are designed to withstand the day to day stress of construction site environments.  Before use, make sure you have thoroughly inspected your girder clamps for any damage, if there is any evidence of damage, do not use. Furthermore, you will need to ensure that the supporting structure is adequate for the load that will be imposed as well as making sure that you have selected a girder clamp with the correct working load limit.  Working Load Limit is the maximum weight capacity that your Girder clamps can withstand. Overloading your girder clap can cause the clamp to break, and could end up damaging your load, or causing an injury. We clearly state the Working Load limit of our clamps on the product page. Please ensure that when you are purchasing a clamp from Safetyliftingear you have selected the correct clamp for the job.

To view our range of Girder clamps click here. If you have any questions about our products, the please contact us, on 0808 123 69 69 or email sales@safetyliftingear.com