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Health & safety |
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Indicator data
Further progress was made in reducing overall accident rates in 2004. Despite this there were eight fatal incidents involving AMEC employees and sub-contractors in which nine people died. Six of these deaths occurred on site while three were the result of two separate road traffic accidents. This compares with four fatalities in 2003. In one of these cases, an AMEC sub-contractor died after being caught up in a gas pipeline explosion in Ghislenghien, Belgium near where AMEC were working. While reported here as a fatality at work, this accident is not included in AMEC's reported accident rates as it did not relate to the work AMEC was undertaking and the pipeline and its safety was not under AMEC's control. It is unacceptable that anybody should die as a result of AMEC's work and we have a clear target of zero fatalities. |
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Fatal Accidents
Details of the 2004 fatalities are as follows: |
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On 25 February, a sub-contract labourer working on the AMEC SPIE Petrofac Joint Venture BTC Pipeline project in Georgia died when the metal pole he was carrying came into contact with the live overhead line supplying a railway. Another worker who was helping to carry the pole also suffered a shock but survived his injuries.
They were part of a team erecting steel poles to form "goal post" style warning markers about 30m either side of an uncontrolled crossing at a railway line. Above the line ran 10KV electricity cables on pylons, and at a lower level the cable carrying the electric locomotive supply line. The two people involved raised the pole to the vertical position almost underneath the locomotive supply line and it touched the live line. Action was taken to improve pre-planning, supervision and briefing of risks. |
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On 29 April, a sub-contract steel erector suffered a fatal fall at a construction project in Manchester, England.
During a process to lift steelwork into place, the fixings for the pulley block system failed, and the deceased was pulled off the scaffold platform by the falling equipment and fell some 20m. The immediate cause of the accident was the catastrophic failure of the fixings and various underlying causes have been identified and acted upon. |
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On 24 May a catenary worker employed by AMEC SPIE Rail died after coming into contact with a live overhead catenary on a railway near Brive La Gaillarde, south-west France. He was one of three specialist catenary workers who had been supplied to another company undertaking work on the railway. They did not have expertise in catenary works and hired in the AMEC SPIE Rail employees together with a specialised on-track machine for catenary works. The deceased believed the catenary to be isolated and the accident occurred when he and another AMEC SPIE Rail employee got on the on-track machine to begin work on the catenary.
The company undertaking the works and the French railway company were managing operations and safety arrangements on the site. Clear instructions have been reissued within AMEC SPIE Rail that work must not commence until formal documentation is available at the site of work certifying that the necessary isolations have been achieved. |
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On 5 July, two employees of Elecam, an AMEC SPIE subsidiary in Morocco, were killed and a third employee was seriously injured when the vehicle in which they were travelling when returning from a worksite in the mountains left the road and fell some 200m into a ravine.
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On 30 July, an AMEC sub-contractor's employee died when a gas pipeline ruptured and exploded at Ghislenghien, Belgium. AMEC SPIE's Belgian subsidiary was working in a factory 50m away and AMEC staff and sub-contractors were caught up in the explosion.
Sadly, the AMEC sub-contractor was among 16 people who died including five fire fighters. One AMEC employee and three sub-contractors were among the 120 people injured in the blast. This fatality has not been included in AMEC's reported accident rates as it did not relate to the work AMEC was undertaking and the pipeline and its safety was not under AMEC's control. |
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On 11 September, an electrician employed by AMEC in Australia died as the result of an electric shock while working on a distribution board at a construction camp in the Northern Territory, where AMEC was undertaking electrical installation works.
He was installing insulated covers over bus bars in the distribution board when he came into contact with the live bars. It is not known why this work was being undertaken live. There was no reason to undertake it live and the main switchboard was close by. The circuit breaker supplying the distribution board had the facility to be locked in the "off" position but this had not been done. The distribution board itself had an isolation switch that had to be turned to the "off" position to enable the panel door to be opened. Once the door was open it was possible to turn this isolation switch back to the "on" position. There was nothing wrong with the standard of the installation. The existing procedures on isolation, testing and "tag-out" or locking off were rebriefed to all relevant employees and emphasised to new starters. |
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On 30 September, two AMEC employees were involved in a fatal road accident on the A505 in England. One of them tragically died at the scene while the other was seriously injured.
They were driving an AMEC van and were returning from a job to their depot when they were in collision with a lorry driven by a third party. The lorry turned into their path when the driver tried to execute a U-turn on the dual carriageway. |
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On 21 October, an employee of AMEC SPIE Belgium was electrocuted during renovation work in a high voltage switchroom in Wevelgem, Belgium.
He was attempting to fit an insulation plate on a part of the equipment that was erroneously live. Issues include the taking and checking/testing of isolations, lock-out arrangements and the formal receipt of permits-to-work. Action has been taken to spread awareness both locally and globally of the safety requirements when working on electrical installations. |
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In this section Summary Strategy Rationale Targets and objectives > 2004 Indicator data 1 2004 Indicator data 2 2004 Indicator data 3 2004 awards and milestones Challenges Moving forward |
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