Worker run over by digger

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted an East Yorkshire building company after one of its workers was driven over by a digger.

Brothers Bryan Christopher Kendra and Michael Antony Kendra of L & S Kendra & Sons pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

They were were each fined £9,000 and each ordered to pay £2,500 in costs.

Beverley Magistrates' Court heard that on July 29, 2009, Bryan Kendra was driving a reversing 360 degree excavator digger at a construction site at May Cottage, Mill Lane, Seaton Ross, when it hit bricklayer, Andrew Trezise.

Mr Trezise, 56, from Pocklington, suffered a broken pelvis and serious leg injuries in the incident.

The HSE investigation found that there were no markings to indicate where the digger was working, to ensure that it was separated from pedestrian movements on site. A reversing assistant had not been deployed to oversee reversing manoeuvres for the digger prior to the incident.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Geoff Clark said: "L & S Kendra and Sons failed to have proper systems in place at the site to restrict and control the movement of the digger.

"As a result workers on the site were left at serious risk. It is essential that steps are taken to segregate moving machinery, such as diggers, from other people on site".

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David Urpeth from law firm Irwin Mitchell said: “I welcome the fines imposed following this serious accident at work which occurred in circumstances that were perfectly foreseeable.

“The construction industry is the industrial sector where a worker is most likely to be killed or injured in an accident at work. As such, it is imperative that proper systems are in place to ensure workers are safe.”