Kier MG and Subcontractors Fined £2m – December 2016

“Break a leg” maybe a good luck phrase in the acting world but breaking a leg is disastrous for people and companies in other industries as a recent case shows. Kier MG (formerly May Gurney) and two of its subcontractors were fined in December 2016 by Lincoln Crown Court a total of more than £2M after Vincent Talbot’s leg was broken in six places when a trench in which he was working collapsed in March 2012.

He was left with a permanently damaged right ankle which points 10º off line. He was off work for more than a year and says he will never work in a trench again.

Health & Safety Executive (HSE) investigators found insufficient measures were taken to protect those working in trench, and a series of safety errors had led to the collapse.

Kier MG sub-contracted the installation work to John Henry & Sons Civil Engineers, which then further sub-contracted the work to Lawless Civils. Talbot was a self- employed contractor hired by Lawless Civils. Lawless appointed a supervisor who had never supervised work and lacked the relevant training and qualifications to do so.

Bedfordshire-based Kier MG pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. It was fined £1.M and ordered to pay £23,327.83 costs.

Cambridge-based John Henry & Sons Civil Engineers denied the charge but was found guilty, of breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £550,000 and ordered to pay £166,217.86 costs.

Lawless Civils Ltd of Lincoln, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. It fined £40,500 and ordered to pay £53,346.59 costs.

The lesson to be learnt is risk assessments should always be undertaken to identify potential risks and safe methods of work introduced to overcome or minimise those risks.

As the HSE Inspector Martin Waring said

“This incident was foreseeable and avoidable and Mr Talbot’s injuries were the result of multiple failings by the duty holders, from the planning stage through to the execution of the project, resulting in the inevitable collapse of an unsupported trench. Sufficient trench support systems were not provided.

“Even while the excavation phase had begun, a catalogue of errors and omissions led to the injuries of Vincent Talbot. It is inevitable that at some time an unsupported trench will collapse, for this reason safe systems of work should be in place in order to protect persons who work in trenches. We could easily have been dealing with a fatal incident.”