Dallas McMillan's Glasgow Lawyers' Blog

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Nursing home fined for elderly man's fatal fall

Truro Crown court has heard that an elderly man with dementia was able to wander into another resident's room at his nursing home and fall to his death from a window. Reginald Gibbings, 89, fell 3.6 metres from the room in July 2008.

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Working at height put under safety spotlight

Dozens of construction sites across Scotland have been put under the spotlight as part of an intensive inspection regime by the Health and Safety Executive.

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Health and safety study launched

People involved in health and safety at work are being invited to take part in a UK-wide study into the sources of information they use, either in their workplaces or when giving guidance to others.

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Call to improve the safety of young drivers

Urgent action is needed to improve the safety of young drivers, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The industry group says that radical measures are necessary – including a minimum one year learning period.

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Excavator driver sentenced after worker injury

A Nottinghamshire demolition company and one of its employees have appeared in court after a worker suffered severe injuries when he was hit by a falling excavator bucket on his first day on site.

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‘Sorry’ not always good enough for victims of injury

Plans to introduce legislation to protect people from legal action if they apologise for causing injury are “pointless and misguided” lawyers have said.

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Injuriesboard.ie publishes interim report for 2012

InjuriesBoard.ie has released details of its work in the first six months of 2012. Data for the period shows a gradual but consistent increase (4.1%) in claims volumes compared to the same period in 2011. The period also saw the emergence of issue-specific claims linked to Thalidomide and De Puy hip replacements.

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Death rates after surgery double that of recent estimates

National estimates of death following general surgery have been too optimistic, according to the first large-scale study to explore surgical outcomes across Europe, led by Queen Mary, University of London.

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Calls for safety guidance to be in plain English

Campaigners say a review of workplace safety must ensure that all updates to important guidelines are made in plain English.

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New initiative to cut loading bay accidents

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has recently launched a new initiative aimed at reducing the number of people injured or killed when working in loading bays.

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De-regulation kills, warns TUC

Government plans to abolish safety inspections in thousands of businesses across the UK will put the health of millions of workers at risk, the TUC has warned.

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Lawyers welcome rethink on compensation cuts

Campaigners have welcomed a decision by the Government to rethink its proposals to cut compensation payments for victims of crime.

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APIL reveals new whiplash research

An independent survey, commissioned by the not-for-profit Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), has found that almost 40% of people who have suffered a whiplash injury have never claimed compensation for it.

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Nursing home owners sentenced after death of elderly resident

Two nursing home owners have been fined after an elderly resident died following a fall from a hoist.

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Firms prosecuted over asbestos exposure

Two companies have been prosecuted after workers were exposed to potentially deadly asbestos fibres at a mill in Bolton.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) took legal action after finding dozens of damaged asbestos boards stacked up during a visit in October 2010.

Manchester Crown Court heard that neither company had put a plan in place to manage the asbestos in the mill on Tennyson Street, where several small businesses rent units.

HSE became aware of the issue when a contractor on the site raised concerns that asbestos insulation boards had been stripped out of unoccupied floors at the mill, releasing potentially deadly asbestos fibres into the air.

Inspectors issued two Prohibition Notices banning the removal of tools and other items from four floors of the mill in case they had become contaminated with asbestos fibres, and preventing access to the floors.

They also found that asbestos was present in other parts of the mill, occupied by tenants, but nothing had been done to protect it and make sure it was safe.

Asbestos boards were commonly used up until the 1980s to help insulate buildings, to build partition walls and as ceiling tiles. The boards only become dangerous if they are broken up and asbestos fibres are released into the air.

Fibres that are breathed in can become lodged in the lungs or digestive tract, and may lead to lung cancer or other diseases if large numbers of fibres are inhaled. However, symptoms may not appear for several decades.

Around 4,000 people die every year as a result of breathing in asbestos fibres, making it the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK.

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Mobile devices more of a distraction than a screaming child

A recent study has exposed the distraction and danger to drivers of just having a mobile phone in the car, with a fifth of participants in a simulator situation moving their eyes from the road for more than seven seconds after simply hearing their phone ring.

The simulator study commissioned by esure car insurance reveals that motorists take 23% longer to respond to an unexpected occurrence on the road when trying to send a text message while driving – which equates to the vehicle moving 8.5metres ‘blind’ while driving at 70mph. This lag in reaction times proved larger than the increased reaction times of distractions of arguing children in the backseat (13%) or feeling stressed (4%).

The simulator study further revealed that posting a short status update on, for example facebook - an everyday temptation to those with a smartphone - had various effects in driver performance mainly causing motorists to move across their lane to a greater extent (up to one metre more than in controlled conditions), being less consistent in following distance and driving closer to the vehicle ahead.

These decreases in motoring performance occurred despite drivers slowing down – proving that a reduction in speed does not offset the true dangers of being on a smartphone and the dangers of updating a social networking status.

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Fraudsters trick school over asbestos cleaning

Two men colluded with each other to commit fraud by falsifying a record stating that a school in Abingdon had been properly cleaned of asbestos.

The "unusual fraud" was confirmed by detective work by one of the men’s employers using GPS tracking technology on the employee’s company van, which proved he had not attended the school when he claimed he had.

The deception by the two men was uncovered after an engineer went to the school to start plumbing work but could see that asbestos material had been left, putting him and others at risk of exposure to dangerous fibres.

He reported it to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which investigated and brought a prosecution against both men.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Andrew Moore said:

"HSE takes exposure to asbestos very seriously. Currently 4,000 people die every year from asbestos-related disease and the onset of these debilitating diseases can occur many years after exposure. That is why there are clear rules and regulations governing its removal and site decontamination, and that is why HSE will prosecute those who flout the legislation."

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Consultation launched on NHS compensation claims

The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on plans to reform the system of NHS compensation claims by introducing a no-fault compensation scheme in Scotland.

The change would mean patients who have suffered loss, injury or damage as a result of healthcare treatment could be compensated without having to resort to court action.

The proposed new system would still require proof that harm was caused by treatment but would remove the need to prove negligence.

Minister for Public Health Michael Matheson said:

"We know that the vast majority of the care delivered in our NHS is of the highest quality, but it is important that people who have suffered as a result of clinical mistakes should have some form of redress.

"It's in no-one's best interests to have that redress delayed because a compensation claim can take years to go through the courts and nor is it in anyone's interests to have precious NHS resources spent on expensive legal fees.

“That is why we are considering the introduction of a no-fault compensation system. It is important that we seek wider views in order to help in our understanding of what the practical implications would be and to ensure that those affected receive appropriate redress without the need to go through a lengthy court process.”

No-fault systems are already in place in countries such as Sweden, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark and Norway, and parts of the United States.

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Reported road casualties Great Britain

The Department of Transport has published statistics on personal injury accidents in the year ending March 2012 on public roads (including footways) in Great Britain.

The statistics show that:

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Campaign against compensation cuts

An assault victim has spoken out in support of a not-for-profit group’s campaign against Government plans to slash compensation payments for victims of crime.

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