Three companies have been fined more than £1 million after a series of safety incidents, including the death of a worker, on the multi-billion Crossrail project in London.

The Bam Ferrovial Keir joint venture (JV), a partnership between BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman and Kier, was prosecuted after 43-year-old Renè Tkáčik, from Slovakia, died after being crushed by falling wet concrete. In addition, the JV was prosecuted after two other men were injured following separate incidents within six days of one another. All three incidents took place in the tunnels around the Fisher Street area.

Southwark Crown Court heard how Mr Tkáčik was working on a team enlarging a tunnel by removing rings of the existing pilot tunnel and spraying walls with liquid concrete on 07 March 2014. However during this operation, a section of the roof collapsed and fatally crushed Mr Tkáčik.

Later on 16 January 2015, Terence ‘Ian’ Hughes was collecting some equipment from inside one of the tunnels when he was struck by a reversing excavator. His injuries included severe fractures to his right leg and crush injuries to his left knee and shin.

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Six days later, Alex Vizitiu was working as part of a team tasked with spraying liquid concrete lining and was assisting with the cleaning of the pipes that supply the concrete. However due to lack of communication, one of the lines was disconnected and Mr Vizitiu was hit by pressurised water and concrete debris. He suffered head and hip injuries as well as a broken finger and was hospitalised for six days.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found a failure to provide a safe system of work relating to the operations Renè Tkáčik and Alex Vizitiu were working on. It was also found there was a failure to properly maintain the excavator which reversed into Ian Hughes.

In addition, the investigation found a failure to properly enforce exclusion zones that would have helped protect workers from foreseeable harm on all three incidents.

In relation to the death of Renè Tkáčik, the JV admitted to breaching Regulation 10(2) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was fined £300,000.

BFK also pled guilty to two separate breaches of Section 22 (1a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, relating to the two incidents in January 2015. The JV was fined £600,000 for the incident involving Ian Hughes and £165,000 with the incident relating to Alex Vizitiu.

The JV was also ordered to pay over £42,337 in costs.

HSE Head of Operations Annette Hall said: "The omission to implement exclusion zones in a high hazard environment was a consistent failure in this case. Had simple measures such as these been taken, all three incidents could have been prevented, and Renè Tkáčik may not have died."

(LM/MH)