Oldham engineering firm fined £100k after worker suffered multiple injuries
An Oldham engineering firm has been fined £100,000 after an employee’s arms, legs and feet were crushed when he became trapped under a large metal frame.
Richard Jones was welding a large ‘A frame’ for Oldham Engineering Limited at its factory in Oldham when the incident occurred on September 27, 2023.
The A Frame was an unusual shape and needed to be turned and rotated using a crane so that the welding could be carried out on a horizontal plane to ensure the quality of the weld.
Mr Jones had rotated the A frame and was inside the frame welding a bracket when the A Frame moved and toppled on top of him, landing on his left arm, left leg and right foot. The frame weighed approximately 1.63 tonnes.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Oldham Engineering Ltd failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees.
The task of welding large structures that had the potential to be unstable, was not risk assessed to identify the obvious risks and no safe system of work was provided to him.
HSE guidance states that employers must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the health and safety risks employees are exposed whilst they are at work.
They must also provide employees with safe systems of work and provide information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of employees.
Oldham Engineering, of Overens Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £4,519.90 in costs at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on April 8, 2025.
After the hearing, HSE inspector, Mike Lisle, said “This life changing accident could have been avoided if Oldham Engineering had properly risk assessed the welding of large potentially unstable structures and identified suitable control measures to reduce the risk of a structure falling, for example the correct use of chocs for stability.
“A safe system of work or method statement then should have been put in place and communicated to the welders to ensure their safety.”
This HSE prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Matthew Reynolds and paralegal officer Rebecca Withell.
