We often talk about health and safety horror stories on this blog, and the health and safety horror story of the past year has without a doubt been the fallout from the rollercoaster crash at Alton Towers last summer.

In case you've somehow missed the media's coverage of this horrible accident, here's a brief recap: on the 2nd of June, 2015, a carriage carrying 16 people crashed into another (empty) carriage on a rollercoaster called The Smiler at the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire. Five people were seriously injured, and two of them - Vicky Balch and Leah Washington - ended up losing a leg each. Merlin Entertainments, the company that owns and operates the Alton Towers park, was investigated and taken to court over the incident, and last week a judge at Stafford crown court ordered them to pay a fine of £5 million.

There really are no winners here: Alton Towers have lost a lot of business in addition to the huge fine, and two young women were forced to undergo life-changing amputations that no amount of compensation will undo. However, a slender silver lining may be found in the possibility that this horrific incident and the ensuing media attention and court ruling may serve as a stern warning to other businesses (as well as to Merlin Entertainments themselves going forward). Paul Paxton, the lawyer who represented Balch and Washington in court, put it well in a statement outside the court after the judge's verdict had been delivered:

"My clients...have been shocked and disappointed by [Merlin's] catalogue of errors.The list goes on and on: the catastrophic failure to assess risk, the inadequate training, inadequate supervision, inadequate management, failure to communicate, failure to put in place safe systems of work. But this has not been about retribution; this has been about finding out why this accident happened and making sure that lessons have been learned, not just by Merlin but by others throughout the industry."

With that in mind, here's what businesses of all sizes in all sectors can learn from this case:

1. The Value of Risk Assessments

The judge at Stafford crown court ruled that Merlin's aforementioned "catastrophic failure to assess risk" was largely to blame for the Smiler incident. Risk assessments are important in every line of work; whether your workers are maintaining rollercoasters or moving boxes, you as a business owner are legally required to carry out a thorough risk assessment in order to identify any and all health and safety hazards that may exist in the working environment you're providing.

2. Putting in Place Safe Systems of Work

Spotting potential risks is just the first step towards total safety. After you've completed your risk assessment, you need to compose and implement a safe system of work that's designed to prevent accidents and injuries from occurring.

3. The Importance of Safety Training

Once you've identified possible risks and put a system in place to neutralise them, it's crucial that you train your staff to work within that system. It's all well and good coming up with a plan to minimise safety risks, but it won't help anyone unless the people on the ground are trained to put it into action!

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Recently a new range of mandatory and prohibition safety symbol labels have been added to our safety label ranges.

These are available in three sizes (50mm diameter, 75mm diameter and 100mm diameter) and are supplied in pack sizes of 25 labels. These self adhesive labels are manufactured in self adhesive vinyl, with a clear protective laminated surface, providing protection from scratching or rubbing, mild chemicals and household cleaning solvents, as well as being waterproof.

The mandatory range include eye, ear, hand and foot protection, read manual or instructions, keep locked, lifting point, two person handling and wash your hands.

The prohibition range comprise no smoking, no naked flames, and restrictions on touching, reaching in, stepping on or sitting on, as well as pinch points.

These labels can be used on a variety of plant, equipment, fixtures and fittings to emphasise safe operating practices. All the products comply with ISO EN 1710 and the Safety Signs and Signals Regulations 1996.

As some of you may already know, this week is Fire Door Safety Week in the UK. This year, the team are seeking to raise awareness of the critical role that accurately installed and maintained fire doors play, in providing passive fire protection to commercial, public and multiple occupancy buildings. According to their official website, around 3 million new fire doors are bought and installed in the UK every year, which may sound like good news at first, but does not accurately represent the standard of safety upheld across the country. In reality, many fire doors fail to receive the maintenance they need to function safely, often left defective and damaged by a lack of care or poor installation.

In order to raise awareness of this common problem, and highlight its existence in public buildings across the country, Theodore Firedoor went undercover and collected video evidence on behalf of IFSEC Global, in order expose cases of neglect.

In the videos which can be viewed here, Theodore visits a hospital and newly built school - two buildings that would rely heavily on the ability to confine a blaze to certain areas for as long as possible, in the event of a fire. Both cases revealed a range of maintenance and installation issues, from faulty closures to missing 'Fire Door Keep Locked' signs. One of the most concerning issues of all, was the fact that the gaps between doors were well in excess of the fire door safety recommendations, which means that they would fail to prevent the passage of poisonous smoke in the event of a fire.

This footage demonstrated not only how common this issue can be, but also how often it arises in areas we wouldn't expect. When you think about workplaces and areas of vital public importance, such as hospitals, you would expect health and safety issues to be at the very top of their priority list. Sadly, the evidence shows that this is not the case in many instances, seemingly due to a lack of proper care and attention. Anyone who has even the slightest idea about proper health and safety practices, knows that it is not a one-off process, and that there are no fail-proof solutions to preventing everyday dangers. To provide the highest level of protection and confidence in health and safety measures, they must be assessed on a regular basis, in order to ensure that they are functioning to the correct standards for a valuable impact.

In order to ensure that fire doors do provide the correct level of protection, those responsible for installing and maintaining these measures should follow these four simple steps:

Step 1: Conduct a thorough assessment of the property, to identify where fire doors are needed.

Step 2: Install safety doors using a reputable and and certified supplier, before conducting another assessment once the work is completed, to ensure that the doors meet official safety standards.

Step 3: Ensure that fire doors are marked with the correct signs, to ensure that employees, occupants and other members of the public, are properly informed of how they should be used and maintained.

Step 4: Conduct regular checks of the fire doors, using the checklist provided by Fire Door Safety Week here, ensuring that a FDIS inspector is contacted if there is an area of concern.

For more fire safety stories and advice, here.

Working at height can be a very dangerous practice. According to the HSE's 2013/14 statistics on Slips, Trips & Falls, falls from height are the most comon cause of workplace fatalities in the UK, accounting for roughly 3 out of every 10 worker deaths in this country. Even when non-fatal, falling from height can result in all kinds of severe injuries, which is why it's important to take health and safety guidelines seriously when you and/or your employees work at height.

You might think that height safety isn't a concern for your company, but working at height doesn't necessarily mean being thirty feet off the ground. The HSE themselves state that ANY work carried out in a place where "a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury" counts as 'working at height', so that covers everything from rooftops and scaffolds to that chairs that some people will stand on to change a lightbulb.

What can I do to prevent falls from height?

As with any area of health and safety, the first step towards minimising the risk of a nasty fall is to carry out a thorough risk asssesment of the work being done and the working environment you're providing for it. A proper risk assessment should provide you with a list of things to do in order to ensure everybody's safety - depending on the industry you're in, this might include providing safety harnesses, installing an edge protection system, and/or using appropriate signs and labels to warn workers and others of any risks presents.

Here at Label Source, we stock a selection of safety signs and notices that are specifically designed to promote safety while working at height. These include:

• Safety Sign: 'Wear Safety Harness'
• Safety Sign: 'Wear Fall Arrest Equipment'
• Safety Sign: 'CAUTION - Mind the Drop'
• Work at Height Guide Poster

Browse our range of laser labels now >

Would you like to be able to print your own labels? Whether at home or in the office, this task is easier to accomplish than you might think. All you need is a standard laser printer and a computer programme that you can use to design each label's content - Microsoft Word, for example (click here to learn how to make labels using Microsoft Word).

Of course, you'll also need a sheet of blank labels to print on, and that's where Label Source can help you out. We sell a superb range of laser printer labels to accommodate all business and personal requirements, so whether you're looking to label your administrative records, your customers' parcels, or your own CD collection, rest assured we've got the perfect solution for you.

Choose from the following options:

• White Self-Adhesive Paper Labels (our standard printer label range, suitable for laser AND inkjet printers, other colours available)
   
• White Industrial Grade Laser Labels (also available in yellow, silver, and transparent)
   
• Tamper Evident Laser Labels (silver labels that leave behind a checkerboard security pattern if removed)
   
• Polyester Laser Labels (available in white, silver or yellow)
   
• Laser Printable Cable Marking Labels (ideal for cable and wire management)

If you'd rather print your labels using a thermal transfer printer, we also sell a wide range of thermal transfer labels for this purpose.

Do you need a different material from the ones listed above? Or perhaps you'd just like our experienced design team to handle the creation of your labels for you? Either way please contact Label Source today to discuss our bespoke labelling options.