A firm has been fined £130,000 and ordered to pay £70,000 in costs after a workman was killed by a piece of flying timber which struck him on the head while laying sewerage pipes in Swindon.

Fredric March, 52, from Croydon, was working at the site in Galton Way for Cappagh Contractors Construction (London), on 10 June 2011 when a piece of timber, used as a cushion on the ends of the pipes being pushed in place by an excavator, snapped.

Swindon Crown Court heard that Cappagh were the main contractors for the work and employed three workmen to lay iron sewerage pipes in a trench.

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The sections of pipe were designed to slot together and the workmen used an excavator bucket to push them in place. Two pieces of timber were used to cushion the ends of the pipes. This was so the excavator could work around an existing horizontal strut on a trench box. The horizontal piece of timber snapped while being pushed by the excavator and a broken piece hit Mr March on the head. He sustained critical injuries and died six weeks later.

Cappagh had not given the workmen any guidance or alternative ways to carry out their work around the strut which was causing an obstruction. They had been allowed to come-up with their own method which was inherently dangerous.

Cappagh Contractors Construction (London) Ltd of Waterside Way, Wimbledon, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and a breaching the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

(CD/JP)