The HSE has prosecuted a building firm after a worker was killed by a reversing van outside a cinema in Ashton-on-Ribble. It was found that the company’s lack of control measures in terms of segregating vehicles and pedestrians had put workers and the public in danger.
Preston-based EMC Contracts Ltd was fined £130,000 after the incident, which saw father-of-one, Carl Green, struck by a reversing van in a paved area outside the entrance to the Odeon Cinema on 27 July 2010.
The 45-year-old painter from Chorley had been working on a project to fit out a new coffee shop in the cinema when the incident happened. He died from his injuries on the way to hospital.
During an eight-day-trial, Preston Crown Court heard that one of EMC’s employees had unloaded his van of construction materials and was reversing it to park up outside the cinema when it struck Mr Green, who was crossing behind it.
The company had written a method statement for the work, which identified the risk of pedestrians being injured by vehicles as a main hazard. However, they failed to state what measures should be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk.
Emma Prescott, the mother of Mr Green’s daughter, Morgan, said: “Our daughter was seven when Carl lost his life, and it continues to have a huge effect on her. Fathers’ Day, Christmas and Carl’s birthday are very difficult times.
“She should be doing all the lovely things children do with their dads but she can’t. Both our lives have been turned upside down and they will never be the same again.”
EMC Contracts Ltd, which has been put into voluntary liquidation, was found guilty of breaching section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company, of Faraday Court in Fulwood, was fined £130,000 and ordered to pay £52,790 in prosecution costs on 5 March 2014.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Susan Ritchie, said: “Carl Green tragically lost his life because the company that employed him didn’t fulfil its responsibilities to ensure his health and safety.
“The work at the cinema was carried out during the school holidays — at a time when children and their parents would have been watching the summer blockbusters.
“Despite this, EMC did not take any action to ensure its vehicles operated safely on the paved area in front of the cinema, therefore putting members of the public and its own employees in danger.
“There were numerous measures the company could have implemented to either eliminate or reduce the risk of collision, such as prohibiting vehicles from reversing or avoiding using its vehicles outside the cinema entrance altogether.
“These measures could have been implemented with little cost but the company still failed to act. As a result, a man lost his life.”
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