Sir Robert McAlpine and others fined as worker loses leg on Arsenal job

Three construction firms have been fined a total of £54,000 after a worker helping build Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium had his leg crushed by a dumper truck.

Michael O’Donovan, 41, from Bromley, was run over while kneeling down to clean steel ‘shuttering’ used to form reinforced structures and pillars.

The incident happened on 30 June 2005 while work was underway on the stadium, then known as Ashburton Grove.

O’Donovan suffered such severe injuries that his leg had to be amputated above the knee, and his pelvis was also fractured.

Main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine and subcontractors McNicholas (now Skanska Utilities) and Maylim were all prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over the incident.

London Magistrates’ Court heard the HSE investigation showed all three companies had failed to ensure vehicles and pedestrians were properly segregated on site.

It also found the cleaning of shuttering was neither properly planned nor carried out safely.

Following the hearing, HSE inspector Loraine Charles said: “Traffic needs to be managed effectively on all construction sites. Had proper controls been in place, this appalling incident would never have happened. As it is, Michael O’Donovan has suffered a severe injury and his life has been changed for ever.

“At construction sites, workers and vehicles need to be separated wherever reasonably practicable. There was no demarcation between the route the dumper took and areas where people could work or were working on this site.

“None of these three companies had carried out a meaningful assessment of the risk to workers of being struck by plant in general and the dumper in particular.”

Sir Robert McAlpine admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £19,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.

Sub-contractor Skanska Utilities admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £17,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.

Maylim, of Evans Avenue, Watford - sub-contracted by McNicholas to undertake the work on the South Bridge area of the site - pleaded guilty to the same breach and was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.