Construction firm fined over worker's injuries

Date:

23 January 2011

Release No:

HSE/EM/299/11

An engineering contractor has been fined after a worker suffered severe injuries when his excavator struck a bridge on the M1 motorway in the East Midlands.

A maintenance fitter employed by Nottinghamshire firm Van Elle Ltd was driving a wheeled excavator during widening work on the motorway between Junctions 25 and 28 when its boom hit a bridge.

The worker, who has asked not to be named, was not wearing his seatbelt and was thrown over the steering column and through the open front screen, hitting his head on the front excavator blade.

He suffered severe head injuries and was in a coma for two weeks. Rehabilitation lasted a further five months and he has since returned to the company though he has been left with reduced function in his left arm and leg for which he receives ongoing physiotherapy.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the incident on 22 September 2009, found the driver had not received adequate training in use of the excavator. He had been assessed to carry out lifting operations at the company's premises but on the day in question was standing in for a regular driver on the motorway construction site.

Mansfield magistrates were told he was driving through the site with the excavator boom at an unsafe height. The manufacturer's guidance states the boom must not be more than four metres high while travelling but in this case the machine was being driven with the boom elevated to more than six metres.

After today's hearing HSE inspector Kevin Wilson said:

"This worker was extremely lucky to escape with his life. As it is he has been left with life-changing injuries.

"These injuries were wholly preventable had the company ensured the driver had adequate training in safe travel positions for manoeuvring the excavator on the construction project.

"They failed to take into account his lack of training for the particular task; there was a risk of striking overhead restrictions from when the journey started with the boom in the elevated position. His injuries could have been mitigated against if the operator had been wearing his seatbelt."

Van Elle Ltd, of Kirkby Lane, Pinxton, Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 9(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The firm was today fined £12,750 and ordered to pay costs of £29,660.

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. Regulation 9(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: Every employer shall ensure that all persons who use work equipment have received adequate training for purposes of health and safety, including training in the methods which may be adopted when using the work equipment, any risks which such use may entail and precautions to be taken.
3. Pictures of the excavator are available from COI News and PR

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