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Steelmaker fined after mobile crane defect ends in overturn

Corus UK Ltd has been fined £100k after a workman escaped with minor injuries when the crane he was operating overturned at Aldwarke Steel Works in Rotherham on 4 September 2008.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that although the crane had been fitted with ‘safe working load’ alarms the alarms were not operational.

Training of mobile operator inadequate

Ater the hearing, HSE Inspector Geoff Clark said: ”This is a serious health and safety breach by a company that globally employs tens of thousands of people which could easily have led to people being killed. The operator was extremely lucky to escape with only minor injuries.

“Today’s hearing highlights the importance of having an effective system in place for managing health and safety to stop easily avoidable incidents. In this case the measures in place were simply inadequate, in particular, there was a substantial failure to provide enough suitable training.”

Corus UK Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the HSW Act 1974.

This article was posted on 12th March 2010 in ALL LATEST NEWS, CRANES MOBILE.
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