Carillion JM fined £185k following truck reversing injury

Construction firm Carillion JM has been fined £185,000 after a series of health and safety errors led to an employee being run over by a truck.

At Manchester Crown Court on Friday 12 February, the Wolverhampton-based company pleaded guilty to three health and safety offences, including failure to ensure the safety of workers and failure to carry out suitable risk assessments. In addition to the fine, the company was ordered to pay £9,821 towards the cost of the prosecution.

The court heard 56-year-old Michael Gresty, from Chadderton, was run over by a reversing truck while working on building a track around a pond at the Kingsway Business Park in Rochdale on 11 November 2008.

As a result, Gresty was hospitalised for a month and is unlikely to ever return to work. He lost his left kidney, broke seven ribs, left shoulder and right foot, fractured his spine, dislocated his right hip and required a pin through his right knee.

The prosecution said no-one was responsible for guiding the truck, and that a pedestrian walkway to separate humans from lorries had not been marked on the track.

"It would have been simple to mark out a basic pedestrian walkway using cones and tape, and have someone responsible for guiding reversing vehicles. If Carillion had done this, Gresty would not have suffered agonising injuries," says Health & Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Neil Martin.

According to the HSE, 10 workers are killed every year and 150 are seriously injured after being hit by vehicles on construction sites.