Construction firm fined after death of worker

Date:

4 October 2010

Release No:

NE/234/10

A Scottish construction firm has been fined after one of its workers died four weeks after being struck by a telehandler driven by a co-worker.

Charles Wilkinson, 51, from Berwick, was struck by the telehandler as it was being reversed the wrong way along a one-way residential street in Tweedmouth.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the company, James Swinton Co Ltd, was carrying out refurbishment work in the street on 10 November 2008.

The company had not requested a road closure from Berwick District Council and there were still residents' cars parked in the street.

The telehandler driver was reversing his vehicle up the street the wrong way when it mounted the pavement and struck Mr Wilkinson, who was taken to hospital with injuries to his pelvis, spine and ribs but later released.

However, Mr Wilkinson died four weeks later as a result of a blood clot. A Home Office pathologist later determined the clot was caused by the incident.

The company, James Swinton Co Ltd, of Noble Place, Hawick, Scotland, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was today (4 October) fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £4,063 costs.

After the case, HSE Inspector Dr Dave Shallow, said:

"This was a tragic accident that could and should have been avoided.

"Site transport activities should be managed to minimise as far as possible the need for reversing. But where it is necessary to reverse, site managers should ensure that it is done in a safe and controlled manner, using a banksman, reversing aids on the vehicles and segregation of pedestrians and vehicles.

"The company could have asked Berwick District Council for a road closure which, along with these measures and the removal of residents' vehicles, would have allowed safer movement of construction plant and vehicles."

Notes to editors

1. James Swinton Co Ltd pleaded guilty to one offence under Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act etc 1974 in which it failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of all their employees.
2. HSE is Britain's national regulator for workplace safety and health. It aims to reduce injuries and illness in the workplace.
3. The case against James Swinton Co Ltd was prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service. The Crown Prosecution Service is the independent authority responsible for prosecuting criminal cases investigated by Police in England and Wales. For more information log onto the website at www.cps.gov.uk
4. Workplace transport still accounts for a large number of injuries and deaths in the construction industry each year.

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