A West Midlands steel company has been ordered to pay more than GBP 146,000 in fines and costs after one of its employees was crushed to death by a 15 tonne crane.
Mr Wilfred Williams 57 of Tividale, Warley, was carrying out maintenance on an overhead travelling crane at C Brown & Sons (Steel) Ltd in Dudley when the incident occurred on May 27th 2011. He was working six and a half metres from the ground and stepped from the gantry he was working on to the rail of an adjacent crane and sat down. At this point the neighboring crane was moved by an operator who had not seen Mr Williams and he was crushed against an upright stanchion.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found Mr Williams and a fellow maintenance worker had accessed the cranes via a cherry picker. The second worker remained in the basket while Mr Williams stepped onto the rail of the crane he was fixing.
He wasn't wearing a harness, there was no other fall protection, and there was no safe system of work at height to prevent crush injuries or falls
Birmingham Crown Court was told that an approved code of practice on working with lifting equipment makes specific reference to proximity hazards and states that "Where anyone is working near the wheel tracks of an overhead crane, the crane should not be allowed to approach within six metres of them if they would be liable to be struck by it".
The court heard no measures had been taken by the company to isolate the other cranes in the bay where work was taking place, or in the adjacent bay. There was also nothing to prevent their approach to those working on the rails.
