A company has been prosecuted after an employee was seriously injured during work to install a water drainage system in Sheffield.

K.D.S. Construction Company Ltd of Taylors Court, Rotherham has been fined £70,000 with over £4,016 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The firm had been contracted by Abbey Forged Products Limited to carry out groundworks for the installation of a new underground water drainage system at its Beeley Wood Works site in September 2016.

During the works, a 48-year-old employee of K. D. S. was working in a two-metre-deep excavation when he was struck on the head and pinned down by a large segment of concrete. He suffered life threatening injuries included fractures to his skull, ribs, left arm and vertebrae.

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An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that KDS employees had dug out a number of excavations for the new tanks and pipework. After one tank had been installed, work started on another excavation for a second tank adjacent to the first.

While this was being dug, one of the groundworkers was asked to cover over some pipework which was sticking out of the first tank to protect it from being damaged by backfill. When he descended into the excavation to do this, a section of unsupported concrete which was overhanging the excavation broke off and fell onto him.

HSE inspector Alison Outhwaite said: "The employee's injuries were life changing and he could have easily been killed. This serious incident and devastation could have been avoided if basic safe guards had been put in place."

(LM/MH)