Watch out! - Designers fined for lack of health and safety consideration
This is an extract from the Weston Daily Press illustrating why health and safety needs to be designed into every project:
'An architect's practice and a construction company have been fined £195,000 after a man died during the building of a Somerset business park.
David Cairns, 64, was working on the air conditioning plant at the newly-built Exchange building at Express Park in Bridgwater, when he fell 30ft to his death in January 2005.
When the tragedy occurred, Mr Cairns was working on the plant, which was built on a platform that could only be accessed via a ladder at the edge of a flat roof.
The roof only had a low parapet, which was not high enough to prevent Mr Cairns falling.
Express Park Construction Company Limited (EPCC), pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to safely manage subcontractors working for it.
The architects involved, Oxford Architects, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 13, and 14, of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994, which require designers to take safety considerations into account.
EPCC was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £68,000 and Oxford Architects Partnership was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay costs of £60,000 at Bristol Crown Court.
Mr. Cairn's family, who were at court, said: "The loss of David has deeply affected us all and he will be greatly missed. Our hope is that lessons are learned within the construction industry so that other similar incidents are prevented.
"Safety should be paramount during all stages of the building process so that another family doesn't have to suffer the loss that we have."
HSE Inspector Sue Adsett said: "This is a tragic case where the failings of the construction firm and architects led to Mr Cairns' death."'
This case underlines the necessity for designers as well as contractors to have input from a competent professional to make sure reasonable measures are put in place for construction and during subsequent use and maintenance of a building.
This needs to be included as a management process for designers and contractors. If you are concerned about your management processes, give BSA a call on 01483 467270
BSA Seminars
and Training
We have finished our seminar programme for 2010 but we have 5 dates for 2011 - See http://www.bernardsimsassociates.com/page/events for details.
In addition, we are going to run a 'public' half day training course on Manual Handling at a cost of £75 per person at the Holiday Inn, Brentwood on the afternoon of 16th March 2011.
If you might be interested in more details on this course which is a practical way to demonstrate that reasonable training has been carried out, please email us via bsims@bsims.co.uk . If you have particular Manual Handling needs - office, site, workshop, delivery, construction etc, let us know and we will try to ensure that we cover your needs in the appropriate detail. All our courses are delivered by competent coaches and certificates of attendance are provided.
We also run 'private' or one-company specific courses on a wide range of Health & Safety subjects - Call Glen, Roger or Bernie on 01483 467270 to discuss what you need.
Timber Frame Construction under Fire
Goverment statistics published in August showed that 1 in 8 fires in part completed buildings are timber framed construction. The London Assembly is said to be conducting a review of fire safety in timber framed buildings following the fire at Greenacre Homes' site in south London. Insurance companies are warning that 'modern construction methods' (presumably including timber frame) are 'too high a fire risk'.
There appears to be some evidence that where a fire takes hold in a large timber frame building under construction, the damage can be more complete than in other forms of construction. There are concerns that fire barriers separating frames from cladding may not be up to the job and allow fire to spread in the cavities.
Whilst there is no doubt that timber frames and light gauge steel frames can be more easily damaged by fire, our risk assessments have shown that with proper precautions, the risks are not massively increased.
For example, with up to two thirds of fires on construction sites started deliberately, site security could be a much greater concern than the method of construction.
The UK Timber Frame Association published a plan in 2008 to ensure safety is maximised within 16 reasonable steps. This plan is under review but in our view, it still represents good practice.
Click here to view the 16 steps
Lord Young of Graffham and the health and safety review
You may have heard in the news that a former trade and industry secretary, Lord Young is to report to David Cameron on the impact of health & safety legislation on our 'compensation culture'.
Phrases such as 'nanny state' and 'lifting of the regulatory burden' already abound but as well as noting that the impact of legislation ahs been to reduce fatalities in construction by 80% since the 1970's when the Health & Safety at Work Act came in to force.
The Unions are rightly concerned that protection will be eroded as commercial pressures on clients continue to grow.
RoSPA welcomes the review as it thinks that many myths about the legislation will be dispelled as evidence is collected and solutions identified.
IoSH also welcomes the review but questions statements already made by Lord Young and David Cameron.
We will follow the arguments but if the legislation has forced better practice and less misery through reduction of fatality, serious injury or illness and bad health, then it can't all be bad. We will follow the review in detail and continue to be 'reasonable and proportionate' rather than dogmatic.
