Risk, Health and Safety Information

Dumper truck breaks worker's foot

A Northamptonshire construction company has been fined after a six-tonne dumper truck ran over a worker's foot.

Self-employed ground worker Ross Smith, 23, from March in Cambridgeshire, was helping to build a roadway at a construction site on Wolsey Way, Lincoln, on 11 March 2011 when the incident happened.

During the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution of principal contractor Maypine Construction Ltd, Lincoln Magistrates' Court heard that Mr Smith and a second worker were filling the roadway with stone, in preparation for surfacing.

The stone was loaded on to the dumper truck at the top of the site which was then driven to an area being filled and compacted by Mr Smith, who was operating a compacting machine.

Mr Smith saw the front-loaded truck approaching the work area and began to move his machine away, but the court was told the dumper truck driver was concentrating on avoiding other obstacles and collided with Mr Smith, driving over his foot.

Mr Smith suffered four broken bones in his right foot.

The HSE investigation found Maypine Construction Ltd had failed to provide a suitable traffic route around the site, failed to manage and monitor construction activity and failed to carry out a suitable risk assessment.

The company, of Enterprise Road, Raunds, Northamptonshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, and Regulation 3(1)(b) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Today the firm was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £5,749 costs.

After the hearing HSE inspector Martin Waring said:

"By law, employers and duty holders must know what hazards and risks are in their workplaces and take steps to eliminate or reduce these risks.

"Many construction transport incidents are usually the result of inadequate separation of pedestrians and vehicles, and by inadequate control of vehicle movements on site.

"Vehicles at work continue to be a major cause of fatal and major injuries and as such need to be carefully managed to avoid injuries such as this."