Firm fined after worker run over by digger

Date:

3 October 2012

A construction company has been fined after a worker suffered multiple injuries when he was run over by a seven tonne digger in Mansfield.

Michael Tomlinson, from Birmingham, suffered multiple injuries including a ruptured bladder, and fractured wrist, in the incident at a construction site on Jubilee Way South, on 8 November 2010.

Mansfield Magistrates' Court heard today (3 October) that he was working as a groundworker for Birmingham-based Parkstone Construction Ltd to prepare the foundations for a supermarket.

A reversing digger struck Mr Tomlinson after the driver failed to notice him behind the vehicle. He took the full impact of the tracks as they knocked him to the ground and crushed him underneath.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Parkstone Construction Ltd had failed to ensure that workers were safely segregated from moving vehicles while work was being carried out.

The company, of Stonebridge Road, Coleshill, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £15,000 with costs of £6,447.

After the hearing HSE Inspector Nic Rigby said:

"This incident was entirely preventable, and Mr Tomlinson could have avoided serious and painful injuries had work at the site been better managed.

"Those in charge of construction sites must ensure that pedestrians and vehicles are effectively and safely segregated. There is clear guidance on how to achieve this and ensure incidents of this kind can be avoided."

Further information on vehicle control and management can be found online at www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport

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."

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