Archives

The alternative taxi company Uber have recently restarted their testing after a three day suspension following an autonomous vehicle test crash.

Uber were testing one of their Volva XC90s in its ‘self-driving’ function in Arizona when things got out of hand. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt in the crash. Two test drivers were in the Volvo, testing its autonomous self-driving mode.
Read More

On the 30^th June 2015 a 42 year-old unnamed employee was working nearby a trailer on a Buchan Concrete Solutions’ Drakelow site in Burton-on-Trent. He was working next to where concrete blocks were being moved when tragedy struck.

Another worker was in the process of moving some wooden struts that were supporting the concrete blocks. One of the extremely heavy concrete blocks became dislodged and fell off a forklift truck and onto the 42 year old employee.

Although the concrete block thankfully missed his head, it did crush one of his legs. With the sheer weight of the concrete block, the man’s foot was severely crushed beyond repair, and was later amputated.
Read More

Although technology is growing at an unprecedented rate, the safety of such technological products remains questionable.

The first trend of such products exploding/catching on fire started with the Samsung Galaxy phones, then the iPhones (according to some disputed reports), and now the Fitbit.

The Fitbit is a wireless activity tracker and sleep wristband which measures data such as the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, and other personal metrics to regulate an individual’s fitness and well-being.

From this story, there may be dangers of using them…
Read More

The Health and Safety Executive have concluded their investigations into a horrific incident that saw a 61 year-old man set on fire whilst working on site.

Mr Steven Brown was working on installing a new set of traffic lights in Chester city centre by first moving a traffic light pole. He was using a pneumatic drill to break up the concrete when he hit an 11,000 volt cable. This gave him a huge electric shock and sparked a serious fire that engulfed the man in flames. Mr Brown suffered severe burns all over his hands, arms, legs, abdomen and face.

His injuries were so severe that he had to put in an induced coma for two weeks.
Read More

Employers are legally responsible for employee safety and must do all they can to prevent employees from being injured in the workplace.

A seal and label producing company based in Kent was fined after a worker injured his hand in a printing press. Maidstone Crown Court heard that an employee of Fuji Seal Europe Ltd (FSE) was cleaning a blade on a printing press when his hand was drawn into the machine.

The employee suffered severe injuries; namely fractures and skin loss to fingers on his right hand which required a titanium fixture for his middle finger.
Read More

Thanet District Council in Kent have been fined a quarter of a million pounds after an employee was diagnosed with Hard Arm Vibration (HAV) Syndrome.

The council was also found to have breached their Health and Safety obligations through various omissions, and the Health and Safety Executive made investigations into how Thanet District Council operated, and identified numerous concerns.
Read More

Back in 2015, a teenager named Dustin Hood drank 3 and a half cans of Monster Energy drinks within 24 hours.

These supersized cans held 680ml each, meaning he drank in total over two litres of high caffeine fizzy drink. The total caffeine content is the same as drinking 14 regular cans of Coca Cola or 7 cups of coffee in 24 hours. For an adolescent teen like Hood, it’s not recommended to exceed more than 100 mg of caffeine a day yet he drank over 700mg in a day.
Read More

Samsung has been engaged in fierce competition with Apple to be the top mobile phone provider in the world. Consumers have witnessed the two brands constantly spewing out countless smartphones, each one being faster, smarter, clearer, more vivid etc than the last.

Samsung finally made it to the top of the headlines and gained worldwide attention… when reports came in that their phones were setting themselves on fire.
Read More

The U.K. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined the University of Northumbria for an experiment that quickly went south, putting the lives of two students in danger.

As part of a laboratory experiment, students at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle learned about the effects of caffeine and what effect it would have during sports. The experiment included a practical exercise whereby volunteer students would guinea pig test the impact of caffeine intake.
Read More

A residential care home provider has been fined after one of their elderly residents choked to death on uncut meatballs; even though the care providers were explicitly instructed to cut up the food first.

Resident Mrs Margaret Humphries was brought to the care home by her family along with written instructions that all food given to Mrs Humphries was to be cut up first. The family made sure to verbally instruct care providers to make sure they were aware that Mrs Humphries had a high risk of choking.

Tragically, the instructions were not acted on.
Read More