Malcolm Littledyke, a 58-year-old Barnsley man, suffered severe crush injuries when the 22-tonne crawler excavator backed into him as he erected boundary fencing on a site in the Tinshill district on 30 June 2008.
His employer, Jack Lunn (Construction) Ltd of Pudsey and building contractor Fastsource Ltd of Hunslet were prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).
Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard how a Fastsource employee was driving the Volvo excavator along the site access road. The driver was aware of other workers on site and had a colleague acting as banksman.
As Mr Littledyke was fixing a fencing panel, the excavator drove past him toward the site entrance. He then heard the excavator reversing back down the driveway. Since he was wearing a high-visibility vest and the excavator driver had passed him only moments before, Mr Littledyke felt in no danger. However, the excavator hit him as it reversed, causing him to fall, and the machine ran over his shins.
The court heard that Mr Littledyke required two operations to set broken bones, a ten-hour operation to graft muscle and further skin graft procedures.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Sarah Lee said: “Workplace transport incidents are one of the biggest killers in the construction industry and this case could easily have been fatal. The danger of collisions between heavy plant and pedestrians on construction sites is well known in the industry and the need for vehicles to reverse should be avoided.
“This incident was entirely preventable. If the simple precaution of segregation of vehicles and pedestrians had been put in place by Jack Lunn Ltd or they had suspended vehicle movements while fencing was being erected, this worker would not have suffered such appalling injuries.
“Similarly if a smaller excavator had been chosen by Fastsource, the driver would not have needed to reverse down the access road.”
Jack Lunn (Construction) Ltd of Progress House, Bradford Road, Pudsey, Leeds pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £8,000 with £6,338.50 in costs.
Fastsource Ltd of Pepper Road, Hunslet, Leeds, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the same Act and was also fined £8,000 with £6,338.50 in costs.
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