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32 Spring 2023 HEALTH & SAFETY A construction company has been fined £146k after a joiner was crushed and killed by a 20-tonne excavator. Philip McDonald had been hired by Birch Brothers (Kidderminster) Ltd to assist with the construction of a concrete overflow weir structure at Monks Pond, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. The 48-year-old, from Alfreton, was with colleagues on a road above the work area waiting for the excavator to remove sand from trench boxes when it rotated clockwise and crushed him. Kidderminster Magistrates Court heard that the Principal Contractor, Birch Brothers (Kidderminster) Ltd, had hired in steel fixers and joiners to undertake the work before tragedy struck in September 2017. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the work had not been adequately planned, and no instruction had been given to the digger operator, or to pedestrians who were working in the area. The risks associated with the work had not been adequately assessed either, and there was no segregation of pedestrians and plant in this area of the site. The company had not appointed a banksman to ensure the safety of pedestrians while the vehicle was in operation and there was also nobody to oversee this element of the work to ensure it was carried out safely. Following the incident, a Prohibition Notice was served stopping further work involving mobile plant/vehicles until the site had been organised in such a way in that pedestrians and vehicles could move without risks to safety. Birch Brothers (Kidderminster) Ltd of Barracks Road, Sandy Lane Industrial Estate, Stourport-on-Severn, DY13 9QB, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 27(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and were fined £146,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,621.90 In September 2022, the company appointed liquidators. WORKER HURT FALLING THROUGH COLLAPSED FLOOR: BUILDING FIRMFINED A building company has been fined £66,667 after a worker was injured when a floor that was under construction collapsed. The Lusson Ltd worker was one of three people who were on the incomplete first floor of a building that was being constructed in Croham Valley Road, Croydon on June 23 rd , 2021. Several pallets of blocks were lifted on to the incomplete concrete beam and block floor using a loader crane, eventually causing the floor to collapse. One of the three workers fell to the ground and suffered an open fracture to his left leg as well as a broken wrist. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Lusson Ltd did not take any steps to prevent falls from height and they failed to establish a safe system of work for this task. Lusson Ltd, of Barking Road, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and was fined £66,667 and ordered to pay costs of £1,907 at Westminster Magistrates Court on 21 December 2022. £146K FINE FORCOMPANY AFTER JOINERCRUSHED TODEATHBY 20 TONNE EXCAVATOR