Introduction:
The
construction industry in Britain is still a hazardous business.
Even the
public is at risk as the following personal experience shows.
Summary of the incident:
On
the 6th February 2005
,at
approximately 14.50 hours today, my daughter and I were leaving the
People’s
History
Museum
(The Pump House),
Left Bank,
Manchester
. As we were descending the (temporary) main steps of the Museum, we became
aware of a ‘whooshing’ sound (like a firework rocket).
We
looked up and saw an object falling from an overhead construction crane. A
split second later it impacted about 5 to10
metres away from us on the asphalt / tarmac of the public roadway -
ie outside the museum premises and outside the perimeter of the construction
site called Spinningfields and whose hoarding advertises that it is a Bovis
project.
The
first photo below shows the scene of the near-tragic incident at Spinningfields.
Note the grease stain at the position of the main impact. The photo was
taken from where I had been walking.
On
impact the object(s) scattered over a wide area with some debris ending up
about 2 metres or less away from us –at our feet. It made a noise
resembling an explosion. At the point of impact it left a black stain on the
asphalt / tarmac of about 3 metres diameter, and the air smelt like burnt
oil. The debris included the remnants of a canister (or canisters) which
were consistent in appearance with pressurised cans, orange plastic -
resembling a broken cap, and thin plastic material - the remnants of a
supermarket plastic carrier bag.
The
photo below shows the
tower crane ( TC 2 ) from which the canisters had been dropped. From that height they
would have reached 'terminal velocity'. If they landed on my or my
daughter's head the situation our condition would likely have been
'terminal' too!
The
canisters etc had
fallen from a tower crane on the Spinningfields development site. One would
have thought that when metal canisters of grease for the cables was needed,
a safer system of operation would have been used than to put them in a
supermarket carrier bag and hoist them up with the arm effectively
overhanging the public highway.
The
photo below shows a canister of cable grease and other debris which landed
at the foot of the steps as my daughter and I were going down them.
We
were very shaken. Had we left the museum about 5 seconds earlier we would
have been on that public way, possibly hit by the object, and almost
certainly killed outright if we had been hit. Members of the public had left
the museum a few minutes before us (while we were in the museum shop) and
other members of the public entered the museum shortly after the incident.
Any of these people could have been killed if the incident had happened very
shortly earlier / later.
The
following photo shows one of the canisters which had fallen from tower crane
and which had landed by the Bovis Lend Lease 'Puts Safety First' slogan .
After I had begun to compose myself I saw a gang of at least construction
six workers inspecting the site and clearing up the mess, by hand and with a
broom.
They then spread sand over the grease stain and left.
The
following photo shows a construction worker holding the evidence - note the
supermarket carrier bag which had been used to hoist the cable grease
canisters up the tower crane.
Outcome:
When I
later spoke by phone to Peter Foy, the Bovis Lend Lease project executive for the development, he
personally undertook to send me
a letter both by way of apology and to give
an account of his investigation and actions. More than three years later
this letter is still awaited from him.
When I
reported the matter to Ms Anna Bliss, the responsible HSE inspector, her
response was that she would contact the company and ask them what steps they
would take so the matter would not happen again. Before the year was out a
similar incident occurred. So I contacted the HSE again asking them
what they were going to do about. A response is still awaited.
Note:
The word
'incident' has been used rather than 'accident'. This is because an accident
is defined in the dictionary on the lines of an "event that is without
apparent cause or unexpected". It is to be expected that using a
plastic supermarket carrier bag to hoist metal cylinders containing grease
some one hundred metres up a tower crane carries a risk of serious
mishap.
Post-script:
The author
was an invited speaker on the subject of "Occupational Ill Health and Injury in
Construction" at the 2008
Society of Occupational Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting.
He
has published in the peer-reviewed medical literature on the subject of
health risks associated in the construction industry.
A companion
page discusses the need for more to be done to improve the effectiveness
and efficiency of the HSE.
