Building director first to be convicted of building site gross negligence manslaughter

Northamptonshire Police are reporting that 52-year-old Andrew Winterton, of High Street, Collyweston, was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter following a nine week trial. It follows a joint investigation between Northamptonshire Police and the Health and Safety Executive following the death of 33-year-old father-of-five Shane Wilkinson.

According to the police:

"The court heard evidence of how Mr Wilkinson had been standing next to a deep trench that had been incorrectly excavated by the trench digger-driver, Dean Wortley, when an unsecured trench wall collapsed and Mr Wilkinson was completely buried underneath the rubble.

A jury heard how, despite the best efforts of fellow workers at the Conquest Homes site, Mr Wilkinson was pronounced dead at the scene after his body was recovered."

Wortley was also convicted after being found guilty of a failure as a self-employed person to discharge his duty to ensure the health and safety of persons not in his employment, contrary to section 33(1a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Steve Woliter of Northamptonshire Police, commented:

"This was a tragic loss of a young life that could so easily have been avoided. Winterton and Wortley were both experienced in ground works and failed to show even the most basic safety measures to prevent harm to workers - such as Shane Wilkinson - on the Conquest Homes site.

This is the first case of corporate manslaughter to have been successfully tried in Northamptonshire so my extended thanks go to the tenacity of the overall prosecution team over the last few years."

Sentencing is set to happy on June 30th.

Source: Northamptonshire Police

HSE highlights London 2012 construction project as an example to all

The Health and Safety Executive is using the construction project for the London 2012 Olympic Games as the standard for how to conduct health and safety, risk assessment, and incident reporting for the rest of the industry.

Through a joint collaboration between the Olympic Delivery Authority and the Health and Safety Executive, a no scapegoating approach was taken to risk management. What that meant was workers were encouraged to raise concerns and report issues without any fear of reprisals. In so doing, it allowed many more problems to be known about and dealt with as well as learning from such incidents.

The results of taking that approach has been made clear in a report released by the HSE this week. Typically the Accident Frequency Rate for the construction industry is 0.4 (calculated per 100,000 hours). For construction during the London 2012 preparations to June this year, the rate had dropped by nearly 60% to just 0.17. In real terms, during 62 million man hours of work only 114 injuries occurred and 8 dangerous occurrences recorded.

Stephen Williams, HSE's Director for London 2012, said:

"The construction industry has for many years been one of the most dangerous in which to earn a living. London 2012 is important because it shows it doesn't have to be that way. No matter what size your organisation, no matter what size your project, small changes in the way you operate can have a huge impact on the health and safety of your workers."

You can view both a summary and the full report on the HSE Research web page

Source: HSE