Companies fined after Arsenal stadium injury

Date:

25 November 2011

Release No:

COI/LON2511

Three construction companies were fined after a worker helping build Arsenal's Ashburton Grove stadium was injured so badly, his leg had to be amputated.

A dumper truck drove over the right leg of Michael O'Donovan, 41, from Bromley, while he was kneeling to clean steel 'shuttering' used to form reinforced structures and pillars.

His injuries were so severe his leg required amputation above the knee. His pelvis was also fractured in the incident on 30 June 2005.

Principal contractor Sir Robert McAlpine Limited and sub-contractors McNicholas Plc (now Skanska Utilities Ltd) and Maylim Limited were all prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over the incident.

The City of London Magistrates' Court heard the HSE investigation showed all three companies had failed to ensure vehicles and pedestrians were properly segregated on site.

It also found the cleaning of shuttering was neither properly planned nor carried out safely.

Following the hearing HSE inspector Loraine Charles said:

"Traffic needs to be managed effectively on all construction sites. Had proper controls been in place, this appalling incident would never have happened. As it is, Michael O'Donovan has suffered a severe injury and his life has been changed for ever.

"At construction sites, workers and vehicles need to be separated wherever reasonably practicable. There was no demarcation between the route the dumper took and areas where people could work or were working on this site.

"None of these three companies had carried out a meaningful assessment of the risk to workers of being struck by plant in general and the dumper in particular."

Sir Robert McAlpine Limited, of Maylands Avenue, Hemel Hempstead, admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £19,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.

Sub-contractor Skanska Utilities Limited, of Denham Way, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth, admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £17,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.

Maylim Limited, of Evans Avenue, Watford - sub-contracted by McNicholas Plc to undertake the work on the South Bridge area of the site - pleaded guilty to the same breach and was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
3. For more information on HSE press releases please see: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/press.htm

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