[kerry davies]

http://www.shponline...rker-fatalities

The Bill received its' first reading today and was unopposed, the second reading will be at the end of April. The company cited in the article paid four directors "dividends" of £200,000 each for each of the three years between fatality and going into administration then promptly "phoenixed" using the same crane which had caused the death.

The HSE will, if the amendment to HASAWA 1974 is passed, be able to apply for an instant freezing of assets through a court order in cases of serious injury or fatality.

I think it is a positive step towards making companies regard H&S proactively, anyone see any drawbacks?

[Jivemaster]

Bigest drawback that I see is that if a company has a serious accident at one site then HSE sieze assets who will pay the employees at other sites for their work done safely and as required. Yes the regs would slightly focus the attention if managers and directors but the instant punisment would be on the other employees.

[kerry davies]

I don't think it will mean actual seizure of funds but some form of freeze which ensures that management and owners don't do a mafia style "bust-out" of the company as in the two cases used as examples. The Bill needs to be published fairly soon and the finer details examined before final judgement made. The crane company took £2.4M in cash out of the coffers before the court case then miraculously resurrected the same questionable equipment from the same premises with the same management. Not good.

There is also the outside possibility that having raised the subject of "Phoenix" companies it might open the door to lobbying on the economic fallout from these charlatans.

Edit (Can't multiply no more!)

This post has been edited by kerry davies: 08 February 2012 - 04:04 PM

[Jivemaster]

In the case of the crane company, I'm surprised that HSE haven't gone in again to the new company demanding that the faulty crane is removed from use until proven repaired/tested and found good.

If this focusses attention on phoenix companies in general it will be good, but that's more accounting standards than HSE's remit.

[bigclive]

Can I just point out that the crane itself didn't fail, but was overstretched and overloaded to the point that it tipped over. This is more common than you think, but in this instance someone was crushed when it came down. Fingers were pointed at limits and alarms "not working" but as someone who has worked with a lot of crane operators I can state for a fact that many crane operators get a bit too confident in their abilities and will ignore warning sounders and use their own misjudgement.

Her's a typical crane tip, although in this case it's probably the stabilisers sank.
Youtube video of crane tipping.

[Pete McCrea]

Spent a bit of time doing S&C (Switch and Crossing - 'Points') renewals on the Great Western railway and can vouch for Bigclive's comment. 200t machine positioned about 1m from where it should have been - the switch that was due to go in set the bells ringing about 1m away from where it needed to go, so with a little manual override and assistance from a road railer or two in managed to land where it was needed. Possession handed back on time with no incidents...

[Modge]

Friend of mine is a civil engineer doing stuff on site, tells a tale of a crane driver trying to drive with the jib up and it's falling over(because he put the crane in the wrong place and thus couldn't get it down when he was done, despite being told this before he started). Huge crane required to remove it. I wouldn't mention it on-line, but I know it was investigated and action taken.

[dbuckley]

I was hoping to post a picture of a motor roller in a ditch, but the big crane had arrived before I got to take the snap