Firm fined £16,000 over death

11:33am Thursday 15th March 2007

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A building firm has been fined £16,000 over a fatal incident at a Preston school.

Bricklayer Tony Isherwood, 61, was struck by falling steel decking while the gym at Hutton Grammar School was being converted into classrooms.

The main contractors, Tyson Construction Ltd, of Mitcham Road, Blackpool, admitted a breach of health and safety regulations, and were also ordered to pay nearly £6,500 costs.

The fatality took place in November 2004 when Mr Isherwood, from Blackpool, was standing nearby when a steel beam was hit by the mast of a forklift truck, and the steel decking was dislodged.

According to the Health and Safety Inspectorate, the use of a forklift truck was inappropriate in such a confined area. Also, the company should have created a safety exclusion zone, until all building works on the beams had been completed.

Counsel for the company, which has 140 employees, said a risk assessment had been done less than a month beforehand. The margin for error had been minute, the company had an excellent health and safety record and what happened had been a one-off incident.

At Preston Crown Court, Judge Robert Brown said it had been an isolated incident. He was satisfied it was not the consequence of health and safety issues being sacrificed by the company for the sake of profit.