View report page

58
Accidents
A fatal accident occurred in a steel warehouse during the unloading of a lorry
carrying bundles of ¾" steel reinforcing bars 40' 0" long. Each bundle was lifted from the
lorry by an overhead travelling crane and taken to a stack of bundles in the steel warehouse.
The bundles were guided into place on the stack by an experienced warehouseman. In one
bundle one bar was bent upwards, and the warehouseman moved the bundle to try to place
it in a position where it would not be affected by the bent bar. The chain carrying one end
of this bundle slipped and the bundle fell on the warehouseman, and his spine was crushed.
At the inquest it was not established how the chain had slipped. A verdict of accidental
death was recorded.
Since the first annual report of the Ministry of Labour under the Act there has been
little variation in the proportions of the primary causes of accidents in registered premises
throughout England, despite the changes in the numbers of registered premises and the
numbers of employed persons. The reduction, nationally, in the numbers of accidents
notified under the Act and industrial accidents during 1970 indicates that there are causes
of accidents which are not apparent during the investigation of a single accident. Each year
since 1965, this Department has made tentative examinations of different aspects of
accident occurrence in registered premises, and in 1971 it was possible to take a longer look
at the causes of accidents, and come to some conclusions.
The number of notified accidents in the borough has been compared each year with
national accident statistics published in the Annual Report of the Department of
Employment. Not only has there been no consistency in the proportions of the primary
causes of accidents in the borough, but the borough's annual statistics of accidents have not
resembled those of England as a whole. The numbers and proportions of notifiable accidents
classified as to primary cause in the borough are therefore not a representative sample of the
national accident statistics.
The tables (page 59) show the total number of accidents reported, and their primary
causes.
The Offices, Shops and Railway Premises (Hoists & Lifts) Regulations, 1968
The work of the department under these Regulations can be summarised as
follows:—
(1) The listing of all registerable premises in which lifts are installed, and the
recording of the details of manufacture, type and construction.
(2) Communication with occupiers who have not made arrangements for lifts to
be inspected in accordance with the Regulations.
(3) The receipt of a report on a lift by a competent person is followed by a
standard letter to the occupier or owner of the premises. This letter draws
attention to the time limits recommended by the inspecting engineer for the
completion of the necessary works, and it requests that the department be
notified when the works have been completed.
(4) The failure of the occupier or owner to give this notification after the expiry
of the time limit is followed by another letter asking whether the necessary
works have been carried out.
(5) In the event of a second unsatisfactory report an inspection is made of the
premises, and if the work has not been completed, the owner or occupier is
then informed that the Council will be recommended to take proceedings.
(6) Requests are received from architects and surveyors to discuss the
installation of lifts, and these often mean that several visits have to be made.
Officers of health departments have no formal training in mechanical engineering,
and therefore find it difficult to distinguish the mechanical problem requiring a mechanical
remedy from a safety problem requiring a non-mechanical or legal remedy. Notwithstanding
this difficulty, owners and occupiers have been co-operative.