The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted EMC Contracts Ltd after Carl Green was struck by the van in a paved area outside the Odeon Cinema in Ashton-on-Ribble on 27 July 2010.
The 45-year-old painter from Chorley had been working on a project to fit out a new coffee shop in the cinema when the incident happened.
During an eight-day-trial, Preston Crown Court heard that EMC Contracts had been hired for a five-week project to fit a coffee shop in the foyer area of the cinema, on Port Way in Ashton-on-Ribble.
One of EMC’s employees had unloaded construction materials from his van and was reversing it to park up outside the cinema when it struck Mr Green, who was crossing behind it.
An HSE investigation found that the company did not have any control measures in place to keep vehicles involved in the construction work away from pedestrians outside the cinema. As a result, both workers and members of the public had been put in danger.
The company had written a method statement for the work, which identified the risk of pedestrians being injured by vehicles as a main hazard. However, they failed to state what measures should be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk.
EMC Contracts Ltd, which has been put into voluntary liquidation, was found guilty of two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company, of Faraday Court in Fulwood, was fined £130,000 and ordered to pay £52,790 in prosecution costs on 5 March 2014.
HSE inspector Susan Ritchie said after the hearing: “Carl Green tragically lost his life because the company that employed him didn’t fulfil its responsibilities to ensure his health and safety.
“The work at the cinema was carried out during the school holidays – at a time when children and their parents would have been watching the summer blockbusters.
“Despite this, EMC did not take any action to ensure its vehicles operated safely on the paved area in front of the cinema, therefore putting members of the public and its own employees in danger.
“There were numerous measures the company could have implemented to either eliminate or reduce the risk of collision, such as prohibiting vehicles from reversing or avoiding using its vehicles outside the cinema entrance altogether.
“These measures could have been implemented with little cost but the company still failed to act. As a result, a man lost his life.”
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