Balfour Beatty fined £1m for worker death

Construction firm Balfour Beatty has been fined £1m after a worker lost his life while repairing a central reservation barrier damaged in a road traffic collision.

Canterbury Crown Court fined Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering after the firm admitted guilt to offences under two sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The firm was also ordered to pay costs of £14,977.

Larry Newman died on 1 October 2012 during work to install temporary traffic management in order to repair barriers on the A2 at the site of collision.

The crew were trying to remove the footings of a post that had snapped off, using a lorry mounted crane. The lorry mounted crane slipped from the concrete footing, and swung back towards the barrier, hitting Newman on the head. He sustained severe head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

A spokesperson for Balfour Beatty said: “Balfour Beatty has offered its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Larry Newman who was killed in this tragic incident.

“The safety of the public and our workforce is always our primary concern. Balfour Beatty has since taken appropriate corrective action to take the lessons learnt from this tragic incident and share them and improvements across our business.”

Health and Safety Executive inspector Andrew Cousins said: “This was an entirely preventable incident that could have been averted by simply creating and implementing a safe system of work. If a suitably sized excavator had been used to remove the footing mechanically it would have prevented this tragic loss of life completely.

“Employers have a responsibility to create safe systems of work for hazardous activities that their workers may be undertaking. The workers should be trained in safe systems of working and adequately supervised. Safety needs to be proactively managed and not just left to chance”.