Excavator driver sentenced following bucket incident
Demolition worker seriously injured during first day on site after being hit by falling excavator bucket
A NOTTINGHAMSHIRE demolition company and one of its employees have appeared in court after a worker suffered severe injuries when he was hit by a falling excavator bucket during his first day on site.
Labourer James Wilson was working for East Markham-based Bloom Plant Ltd at a demolition site on Kilton Road, Worksop, on 10 January 2011 when the incident occurred.
Excavator operator Paul Batty, who was also employed by Bloom Plant Ltd, was reattaching a 4-tonne excavator bucket to the boom of his machine when it fell and slid down a pile of rubble, landing on Mr Wilson and leaving him with major crush injuries.
Mr Wilson received fractures to his eye socket, cheekbone, jaw, nose, left collarbone, several ribs and left leg. He also lost his left eye and part of his scalp, as well as suffering a punctured a lung and severed nerves on his bottom lip.
He was in a coma for two weeks and had to have a tracheotomy to help him breathe. He also needed extensive reconstructive surgery and has not been able to return to work, and is unlikely to do so for the foreseeable future.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Bloom Plant Ltd had no safe systems of work in place and had not given Mr Wilson adequate information, instruction, training or supervision, including adequate warnings of the hazards involved when working around plant.
Mansfield Magistrates’ Court heard that employees should have been excluded from the area while the bucket was being reattached and a safety pin used to secure it in place. During its investigation, the HSE found that Mr Batty had failed to take either of these preventative measures.
He pleaded guilty to breaching Section 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, by failing to take reasonable care of the health and safety of others, and was sentenced to 250h of unpaid work and ordered to pay a £200 contribution towards costs.
Bloom Plant Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc act 1974, by failing to provide and maintain safe systems of work and to provide adequate information, instruction, training or supervision. The case has been committed to Crown Court for sentencing at a later date.
After the hearing HSE inspector Kevin Wilson said: ‘Mr Wilson suffered appalling injuries and was extremely lucky to survive. He was put in a position of grave danger by Mr Batty, who reattached the bucket without ensuring the area was clear of other people and not in a safe position on level ground.
‘Bloom Plant Ltd should have provided safe systems of work for both Mr Batty and Mr Wilson with better instruction, information, training and supervision, especially as the operations being carried out were known to have serious risks.’
