Work accident claim experts recently reported that two workers suffered injuries in a pair of unrelated accidents at a lead smelting works in Derbyshire, leading to two firms facing prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive.
The two injured men, whose names are currently being withheld out of privacy concerns, sustained their injuries whilst on the job at HJ Enthoven Ltd, located near Matlock, in South Darley. According to both workers’ personal injury claims, one suffered severe crush injuries while he was undertaking maintenance on an overhead crane, while the other sustained serious burns in the wake of an explosion.
The explosion was precipitated by the actions of the burned employee, who had been transporting molten lead slag in a pan in a forklift truck. The pan, which was capable of holding slag as hot as 800 degrees Celsius, toppled from the truck, causing a terrific explosion when the molten metal came into contact with water in a nearby drain, and the driver of the forklift truck had been attempting to escape the blast when he fell into the molten led, suffering burns to his upper body and face so severe that necessitated months of specialised therapy and treatment.
The second, unrelated accident occurred when a maintenance engineer, employed by Key Engineering (Chesterfield) Ltd, had his right arm crushed between the control panel of an overhead crane and a roof beam while he was investigating a problem with the crane at the smelting works. The man’s injured arm required four metal plates surgically implanted into it in order to repair the damage it suffered, and he also required several skin grafts to aid in his recovery as well.
Both companies were investigated by the HSE following each incident, with the Government watchdog prosecuting each for breaching Health and Safety protocols.