Shropshire fuel firm fined £20,000

D A Roberts Fuels of Grindley Brook, Whitchurch, Shropshire, pleaded guilty to safety failings after the incident at the premises in 19 February 2014.

Shropshire Magistrates’ Court heard the employee was tasked with clearing out the drains in the yard shared with an adjacent business. As he was kneeling to clean out a drain he was struck by an approaching vehicle,driven by the employee of the adjacent company, and suffering injuries including a bone fracture to the neck.

DA Roberts Fuels was fined £20,000 with costs of £2989 after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), prosecuting, told the court the defendant had not provided a safe system of work, as there were no barriers to segregate the work area, no signage was used to warn people of the work and no consideration had been given to performing the work when vehicles were not moving.