The Health And Safety Executive recently published details of an accident involving a specialist piling/foundation/ground working company – Optima Foundations Limited – from Edlington, Doncaster. They were fined after a worker severed three of his fingers while inserting piles at building site in Lincolnshire.

It was reported that he was loading a section of casing due to be piled when the rig operator dropped the 500kg weight into his right hand before he had a chance to remove it. Three of his fingers were completely severed to the palm and surgeons were regrettably unable to reattach them.
The twenty seven year old man from Doncaster has been left with a permanent injury as a result of the incident 6th February 2012 in Martin at a social housing development.

Subsequently his employers were prosecuted after a thorough investigation by the (HSE) Health had found to identify failings. The Magistrates’ Court in Lincolnshire had heard that there was no system of verbal instructions or signals that would have indicated that the person injured was in a safe position and ready for the weight to be lowered. The rig operator would watch him and judge when it was appropriate to lower the weight -This being the current system of work.

The firm, Optima Foundations Ltd trading from Broomhouse Lane Industrial Estate, Edlington, Doncaster, was ordered to pay £8171 in costs on top of a fine totalling £15,000 after pleading guilty to single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

Martin Giles, HSE inspector was quoted as saying:

“There was no safe system of work for the tasks being undertaken by the injured person. Had the weight been properly positioned for the length of tube being inserted, and had there been a recognised and agreed method of communicating that it was safe to receive the weight, then the incident could have avoided completely and he wouldn’t have suffered such life-changing injuries.

“Optima Foundations did not provide the injured person and his supervisor with adequate information, instruction and training, and there were defects in the functioning of the controls of the piling machine.”

It was not known if any groundwork insurance claims were involved or any other cheap liability insurance related policy was called upon.