Firm fined after worker hurt in trench collapse

Date:

13 June 2012

Release No:

HSE/M/59/12

A former England kick boxer has had to give up the sport after being injured at work, a court was told.

Nottinghamshire engineering company Phil Watson Civil Engineering Limited was today fined for the incident which saw 36-year-old Zak Davis, of Billinghay, Lincolnshire, buried up to his waist when a trench collapsed.

Mr Davis was working on a small housing development just off Wragby Road, Bardney, Lincolnshire when the incident happened on 4 August 2011.

He was laying drain pipes in a trench being dug by an excavator. It had been raining heavily during the day. While he was in the trench the digger operator noticed the walls beginning to crack and shouted a warning but before Mr Davis could escape he was hit by the falling material, including a large lump of concrete, and was pinned down by his legs.

He dislocated and fractured his hip socket and shattered his pelvis. He needed 10 hours of surgery and is still off work.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found Phil Watson Civil Engineering Ltd had failed to assess the ground conditions and the effect that the rain would have, and failed to install measures to prevent a trench collapse.

The company, of Victoria Street, Shirebrook, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 31(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. Lincoln magistrates today fined the firm £10,000 and ordered it to pay full costs of £2,141.

After the hearing HSE Inspector Tony Mitchell said:

"Excavation work is a high risk activity, but the risks are foreseeable and preventable.

"The site had previously been a farm. It had been demolished and the rubble spread on site as top fill. The subsoil beneath it was predominantly compacted sandy soil, so the ground conditions were poor. However, this was not properly identified as high risk before work started, the rain made the soil structure more unstable and the trench collapsed because it was not sufficiently supported.

"This incident could have been prevented by the use of mechanical trench supports or by sloping the trench sides further. Instead, a man has been left with life-changing injuries."

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. 2. Regulation 31(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states: "All practicable steps shall be taken, where necessary to prevent danger to any person, including, where necessary, the provision of supports or battering, to ensure that— (a) any excavation or part of an excavation does not collapse; (b) no material from a side or roof of, or adjacent to, any excavation is dislodged or falls; and (c) no person is buried or trapped in an excavation by material which is dislodged or falls."
3. 3. HSE information and news releases can be accessed at: www.hse.gov.uk/press

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