Industry news
Company fined over worker death
Posted Tue, 26 Jun 2012
A construction company has been slapped with a £100,000 fine and ordered to pay £140,000 in costs after a carpenter was killed while working at Bath University.
Phillip Hames, from Weston-super-Mare, died instantly when a slab of concrete fell on him while working on the University's Claverton Down Campus in November 2007.
His employer, Creagh Concrete Products Ltd of Toombridge, County Antrim, was found guilty of breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety Executive at Work Act (1974).
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought the prosecution to Bristol Crown Court after it found Creagh Concrete Products Ltd had failed to communicate the nature of the steel expansion joint to workers.
The court heard that Mr Hames had inadvertently destabilised the asymmetric steel beam without realising it was holding the concrete slab in place above him, crushing him and narrowly avoiding a co-worker.
Copyright Press Association 2012