A local authority and a contractor have received large fines after a reversing tipper truck hit and killed a council employee during a road surfacing operation in Rotherham.
Doncaster Crown Court heard how Gordon Duffield - a road worker employed by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council - was knocked down by the eight-wheeled tipper, operated by Sheffield-based contractor Brocklebank and Company (Demolition), as it delivered asphalt to a site in May 2007.
As part of a prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the council was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £18,350 costs after pleading guilty to a section 2(1) breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Brocklebank also pleaded guilty to a breach of section 3(1) of the same legislation, was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £12,000 costs.
The court heard how:
- vehicle movements at the site were uncontrolled, despite the fact tipper wagons had to reverse the length of the site;
- no-one was designated to direct the movement and unloading of the lorry;
- the council were also aware that the employee was partially deaf as a result of exposure to noise at work, but had made no assessment of his suitability to continue as a road worker;
- the contractor had failed to take all reasonably practicable steps to protect those at the site from the risk of being hit by a reversing vehicle;
- and instructions for the driver to do a 360-degree check were not communicated, nor was CCTV fitted to eliminate the blind spot at the rear of the vehicle.
John Rowe, HSE principal inspector, says: "Mr Duffield's death demonstrates all too clearly the need for the movement of workplace vehicles to be carefully managed so that employees and other pedestrians are not put at risk."
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