Firm fined £185k after worker crushed by truck

A major construction company has been fined £185,000 for failing to separate vehicles from pedestrians on a building site in Lancashire.

Carillion JM Ltd, which is part of the multinational Carillion plc group, was the principal contractor for the construction of Kingsway Business Park in Rochdale. On 11 November 2008, Michael Gresty was helping to build a roadway around a large pond at the site. He was using a petrol-driven saw to cut plastic blocks, so they could be used to form the road.

The saw ran out of petrol and Mr Gresty began walking towards colleagues, who were working on the other side of the pond, to ask if they had any spare fuel. While he was making his way across the site, he was run over by a reversing tipper truck. He sustained multiple fractures, a damaged left kidney, and has had a pin put inserted in his right knee. He has subsequently lost one inch in height, and has been unable to return to work owing to his injuries.

HSE inspector Neil Martin revealed that the truck was not being guided by a banksman, and there was no walkway to separate vehicles from pedestrians. He said: “It is not acceptable that a construction company, which employs 50,000 people around the world, did not carry out the right risk assessment, or put a system in place for preventing collisions.

“It would have been simple to mark out a basic pedestrian walkway, using cones and tape, and have someone responsible for guiding reversing vehicles. If Carillion had done this, Michael Gresty would not have suffered agonising injuries.”

RSS news item created on 23/02/10 9:59 am