Barnsley man sues for £500k after brain damage

A Barnsley man who suffered severe brain damage following an accident on a construction site has launched a legal battle against a demolition firm.

Through his wife Susan Kaye, Christopher Kaye, 55, is demanding compensation of more than £500,000 from Euro Dismantling Services, after he was hit in the face by a grapple attachment of a Komatsu excavator.

Kaye had been working as a machine operator at the Omnivale construction site in Sheffield when senior site supervisor Warwick Binns asked him to remove a grapple attachment from the boom of a Komatsu excavator, a writ alleges.

He used a steel bar to knock out a connecting pin, when the grapple attachment suddenly moved, hitting in the face.

The accident left Kaye with a fractured jaw and a “catastrophic injury to his brain”, unable to communicate and dependent upon a tracheotomy to breathe, and a tube to feed, a high court writ states.

Kaye's legal team say his employers were negligent, asking him to remove the attachment when it was unsafe and dangerous for him to do so. The firm failed to train Kaye to do this in a safe way and failed to ensure the arm and attachment were stabilised, the writ says.

It is too soon after the accident for doctors to provide a prognosis in relation to the claimant's condition, the writ claims. As a result , no decision can yet be made as to whether the claimant should seek a lump sum payment or periodical payments.