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Web address: http://personalinjury.ffw.com//news/2010/mar/firm-fined-£23,000-over-crushe.aspx

Firm fined £23,000 over crushed man

A building firm has been fined a total of £23,000 after a bricklayer was run over by a digger and seriously injured.

Beverly Magistrates' Court heard that Andrew Trezise, an employee of L & S Kendra & Sons, was working at a construction site in Seaton Ross, Yorkshire, when he was hit by a 360-degree excavator digger, breaking the 56-year-old's pelvis and seriously injuring his legs.

A later investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found there were no markings at the site to indicate where the vehicle had meant to be working, nor had an assistant been used to supervise the reversing procedure.

HSE inspector Geoff Clark said: "L & S Kendra and Sons failed to have proper systems in place at the site to restrict and control the movement of the digger.

"As a result workers on the site were left at serious risk. It is essential that steps are taken to segregate moving machinery, such as diggers, from other people on site."

The company pleaded guilty to breaches of health and safety legislation.