A DEMOLITION company was today fined £40,000 after a worker suffered severe injuries when he was hit by a falling excavator bucket.
Bloom Plant Ltd (BPL), of Askham Road, East Markham, Newark, was prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work Act at Nottingham Crown Court.
The company was fined £40,000, and ordered to pay costs of £27,500.
Labourer James Wilson was in his first day of his job with Bloom Plant Ltd, working on a demolition site in Kilton Road, Worksop, on January 10, 2011.
Excavator driver Paul Batty, who was also employed by Bloom Plant Ltd, was re-attaching a four-tonne excavator bucket to the arm of his machine when it fell and slid down a pile of rubble, landing on Mr Wilson and leaving him with major crush injuries.
Mr Wilson, who was 46 when the incident happened, lost his left eye, part of his scalp, broke his eye socket, cheekbone, jaw, nose, left collarbone, several ribs and his left leg, and a lung punctured and nerves severed on his bottom lip.
Mr Wilson, of Misterton, was in a coma for two weeks and had to have a tracheotomy to help him breathe.
He needed extensive reconstructive surgery. He is still receiving medical treatment and will continually need to take pain relief.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Bloom Plant Ltd had no safe systems of work in place and had not given Mr Wilson adequate information, instruction, training or supervision, including adequate warnings of the hazards involved when working around plant.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by failing to provide and maintain safe systems of work and to provide adequate information, instruction, training or supervision.
The court was told that employees should have been excluded from the area while the bucket was being re-attached and a safety pin used to secure it in place.
John Bloom, owner and director of the company, said after the hearing he was absolutely devastated at what happened and remains traumatised.
He said he takes full responsibility, will pay the fine and costs as soon as possible and feels terrible about the accident and injuries suffered.
"We have been in business for 40 years and have never had an accident in the workplace. There was mitigation put forward in court as to the reason why this happened. We do give health and safety training, tool box talks and induction on site. This incident happened in an area which was out of bounds."
After the hearing HSE, Inspector Kevin Wilson said:
"Mr Wilson suffered appalling injuries and was extremely lucky to survive.
"Bloom Plant Ltd should have provided safe systems of work with better instruction, information, training and supervision, especially as the operations being carried out were known to have serious risks. Instead, Mr Wilson was put in a position of grave danger."
