Companies fined after worker trapped by pipe
NORTHUMBRIAN Water has been fined after a worker nearly lost his leg when he was hit by a 1.5-tonne pipe.
The company, along with contractors JW Colpitts & Co, previously pleaded guilty to health and safety charges after the accident at Kielder Reservoir in 2018.
A court heard an employee of JW Colpitts, who had been tasked to carry out maintenance works at a submersible discharge valve at the beauty spot, was inside a deep chamber when he was hit by the pipe.
His left leg, which was initially trapped between the metal structure and a wall, sustained horrific injuries.
The 52-year-old suffered an open, compound fracture to his tibia and fibula that required surgery to insert plates and pins.
The bones also had to be shortened as a result of them being “flattened”.
The victim, who spent 15 days in the Royal Victoria Infirmary’s major trauma unit, was told he was lucky not to lose his leg, Newcastle Magistrates’ Court was told.
Northumbrian Water has now been fined £365,000 and ordered to pay £14,360 costs after it admitted one count of being an employer failing to discharge general health, safety and welfare duty to employees and one of an employer failing to discharge general health/safety duty to person other than employee.
JW Colpitts & Co, based in Blyth, was fined £30,000 and must pay £17,452 costs after they pleaded guilty to one count of being an employer failing to discharge general health, safety and welfare duty to employees.
Sentencing them, District Judge Sarah Griffiths said the accident wouldn’t have happened had both companies implemented proper procedures.
The court heard that Northumbrian Water hired JW Colpitts to help undertake maintenance work at submersible discharge valve chamber 1, at the hydro-electric dam at Kielder, in June 2018. After a number of meetings between employees and an attempt to fix a problem, the nature of the work changed and a number of health and safety shortfalls arose.
One June 6, the victim and staff from both companies were working in the chamber and a pipe was being lifted in the air by a lorry-operated crane.
Robert Stevenson, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said the workers were trying to align bolts and holes in order to attach the pipe to an outlet pipe, however they were not “marrying up”.
Mr Stevenson said: “The operatives were left to make a decision on what to do and they decided to clean the base of the [chamber] floor using an angle grinder. [The victim] went to the bottom of the chamber in order to grind the floor. [Two other employees] were, for the majority of the time, stood on the middle tier.
“The pipe was lifted to allow [the victim] access. It was lifted to a height of 18ins and moved slightly to the side of the chamber while [the victim] did the grinding. His hands and other body parts were below, or in a perilous position below, the pipe, weighing 1.5 tonnes, which was a dangerous procedure.” The court was told the pipe was lifted and lowered a number of times as workers tried and failed to align bolts.
Mr Stevenson added: “On the last occasion, the bolts that had been put in became stuck in their holes.
“So, in order to release pressure and free those bolts, an instruction was given to the crane operative to lift the valve [the pipe] very slightly to remove those bolts.”
The court heard that, during this process, the pipe swung across the chamber and hit the victim’s leg, trapping it against a wall.
In a statement, the worker said he had needed to wear a wedge in his shoe as one leg was shorter than the other but surgery had lengthened it again and the legs were now the same length. He has now fully recovered. Both companies must also pay a £120 victim surcharge.