HSE prosecutions

Rail contractors were fined £90,000 last month after a worker was severely burned, and fell 15 feet from a scaffold tower, fracturing his skull.

Vincent Keane received burns to 40% of his body, as well as the other injuries, when he fell from a scaffold tower after coming into contact with a 25,000 volt overhead power line at Liverpool Street station. Mr Keane has been unable to work since.

GT Railway Maintenance (GTRM), and Construction Services South East Ltd, were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive, after an investigation into the incident, which took place in 1999.

GTRM was also fined £17,500 recently after an incident last year where a worker was burned after touching a 650-volt live conductor rail at a section of track he was working on.

Construction firm Galliford Hodgson Ltd was fined £40,000 last month after the death of a 12 year-old boy. The company was prosecuted by the HSE after an incident in January 2000, in which Martin Karshak died after falling 36 feet while playing on scaffolding in Hackney. It is thought that Martin had been playing when he fell over the guard rails of the scaffolding, which he climbed onto from a balcony. Robust fencing should have been used to prevent access to the scaffolding from the balcony, but no such barrier was present.