Health and Safety Failings – Fine issued following excavation collapse

Fine issued following excavation collapse

Key Facts:

• Building firm owner was left partially buried, and broke his leg and ankle in excavation collapse
• The HSE inspector described him as being ‘reckless with the lives of his employees’.
• The director and the firm were both fined £15,000 each, as well as being ordered to pay £1,176 each in costs.

The case:

In July 2014, the director of an Essex based building firm was left partly buried following an excavation collapse on a site his company were working on. The high sides of an excavation collapsed on him, and fellow workers had to dig him out by hand to rescue him. He suffered a broken leg and ankle, and needed medical assistance.

Southend Magistrates’ Court heard the case on 4 March 2015, following an HSE investigation into the excavation collapse.

Photo of the excavation collapse

The director had been working with another employee and using an excavator to dig in the side of a slope, leaving up to 2.5m high of the slop unsupported, and this ultimately led to the excavation collapse. The second worker jumped to safety, before he and a

third employee had to dig their employer out by hand.

A prohibition notice was served by the HSE, banning any further work until the excavation site had been made safe.

Both the director and the firm were prosecuted following the investigation of the excavation collapse. The firm was fined £15,000 and £1,176 in costs for a breach of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. The firm director was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £1,176 in costs.

What the HSE Inspector had to say:

Speaking about the excavation collapse after the hearing, HSE Inspector Adam Hills stated that:

“Paul Connolly not only endangered himself, but was reckless with the lives of his employees. Every year people are killed or seriously injured by collapsing trenches. The dangers here were obvious.

A few simple and inexpensive precautions could have easily prevented this from occurring. To prevent a collapse you should shore, step, or batter back the sides. Do not assume ground will stand up unsupported.”

What the law states:

Regulation 31(1) of Constuction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states:

 All practicable steps shall be taken, where necessary to prevent danger to any person, including, where necessary, the provision of supports or battering, to ensure that (a) any excavation or part of an excavation does not collapse; (b) no material from a side or roof of, or adjacent to, any excavation is dislodged or falls; and (c) no person is buried or trapped in an excavation by material which is dislodged or falls.

Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states:

Where an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Further information on the incident can be found on the HSEs website here.

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