SWMRcrush – By Adam Dutton
This is the horror moment a welder was left seriously injured after being crushed by a huge excavation bucket at a shipyard.
David Vinsome, 37, sustained multiple rib fractures as well as internal injuries, including an abdominal wall burst, at Pallion Shipyard in Sunderland.
CCTV captured the moment he was crushed between an excavation bucket and a fabrication table on October 18, 2022.
The company Midland Steel Traders Ltd has now been fined £100,000 following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
At the time of the incident, welders had been using an overhead gantry crane and a fork lift truck to rotate a large excavator bucket.
David was crushed as he attempted to attach the chains from the crane to the bucket and the fork lift truck driver started lifting it unaware he was behind.
In a victim personal statement, the father-of-one, said he spent nine days in hospital before returning home and still suffers with pain.
David, of North Shields, said: “When I did come home, I was in bed for about a month before I tried to get down the stairs.
“My partner is a NHS nurse, so she helped a lot.
“I am still suffering a lot of pain with my shoulder. I have a daughter and I cannot do the school run anymore or take her out for meals or ice cream.
“I am worried about getting back to work. I don’t know when that will be or how I will manage.
“I don’t think I will go back to welding.”
The investigation by the HSE found Midland Steel Traders Ltd had failed to ensure the lifting activity was properly planned by a competent person, or carried out in a safe manner.
They also failed to produce a lifting plan, and to establish a safe system of work for this activity – leading to a “breakdown of communication between the multiple operators involved.”
HSE inspector Matthew Dundas said: “Lifting operations can often put people at great risk, as well as incurring great costs when they go wrong.
“It is therefore important to properly resource, plan and organise lifting operations so they are carried out in a safe manner.
“Had that been done in this case then Mr Vinsome wouldn’t have been so seriously injured.
“HSE provides detailed guidance on lifting operations including the importance on how they should be properly resourced, planned and organised, to enable them to be carried out in a safe manner.”
Midland Steel Traders Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching the Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The company was fined £100,000 and told to pay £4,916 costs at Newcastle Magistrates Court on February 13 this year.
