Firm pleads guilty to health and safety breach after teenage bricklayer fatally crushed on housing scheme

The death of an 18-year-old bricklayer on a UK housing construction site has led to a fine of £25,000 for Taylor Wimpey Developments (formerly Taylor Woodrow Developments).

Stoke Crown Court also ordered the company yesterday to pay an equal amount in costs, after it pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The incident occurred in August 2003, when self-employed bricklayer and apprentice Grant Meyrick was crushed against a mortar silo while working on a housing development at Trentham Lakes South, Stoke-on-Trent.

The vehicle normally used to transport mortar around the site was out of action that day, so tubs of mortar were loaded into the front bucket of a backhoe loader.

As Meyrick and another worker waited beside a mortar silo, the approaching loader skidded into him, the bucket on the front of the loader crushing him against one of the silo’s legs. He later died from internal injuries.

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