Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Plumbers merchant group Wolseley UK has been fined after a worker at the Plumb Center branch Scarborough suffered a “near fatal” accident.
The victim suffered multiple injuries including fractured ribs, a punctured lung, broken collar bone and a broken shoulder when a roller shutter door on the warehouse failed.
Wolseley UK was prosecuted by Scarborough Council under health and safety legislation and fined a total of £30,000, with £1,400 costs awarded to Scarborough Council.
The door was found to have had failures in multiple parts as, although it had been subject to repairs these were only undertaken when a fault occurred rather than part of a planned system of maintenance and inspection.
However, Wolseley UK was praised by Steve Pogson, health and community manager at Scarborough Council for how it reacted and worked with the Council to ensure that it would not happen again. Pogson said “Our officers were kept informed by Wolseley UK and their representatives as the company put in place procedures to ensure that all roller shutter doors on their premises are now maintained in an effective way.
“We are pleased at how the company has worked with specialist door engineers to arrive at a comprehensive inspection regime to ensure no future re-occurrences of this nature. It is understood that this inspection and maintenance regime is now being adopted nationally.”
