25 January 2016
A major construction firm has been fined after a worker lost his life whilst repairing a central reservation barrier damaged in a road traffic collision.
Canterbury Crown Court heard how, on 1 October 2012, a team was sent out by the company to install temporary traffic management in order to repair barriers on the A2 at the location of a collision site.
The crew were trying to remove the footings of a post that had snapped off, using a lorry mounted crane. The lorry mounted crane slipped from the concrete footing, and swung back towards the barrier, hitting the worker on the head. The 37 year old sustained severe head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The London company, was fined a total of £1million, and ordered to pay £14,977 in costs after pleading guilty to offences under Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Andrew Cousins said: “This was an entirely preventable incident that could have been averted by simply creating and implementing a safe system of work.
“Employers have a responsibility to create safe systems of work for hazardous activities that their workers may be undertaking. The workers should be trained in safe systems of working and adequately supervised. Safety needs to be proactively managed and not just left to chance”.
