Two companies have been fined £2 million after a worker was crushed to death at a renewable energy plant in Sheffield.

R K Civil Engineers Ltd of The Chancery, Spring Gardens, Manchester was fined £1 million after being found guilty of breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

R K District Heating Ltd of The Manor House, Eccleshall Road South, Sheffield was also fined £1 million after being found guilty of breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Both firms were also ordered to repay £17,271 in costs, with arrangements to be made between the two companies.


Sheffield Crown Court heard how David Beresford was employed by R K Civil Engineers to work at the EON Renewable Energy Plant in Blackburn Meadows, Alsing Road on 10 December 2015.

The 36-year-old was one of two workers unloading large heating pipes from a trailer to place them into stillage containers at the site. Each pipe was 12 metres long and weighed around 840kg.

The pipes were being lifted and moved using an excavator. However, they were incorrectly stacked above the top edge of the stillages and during the positioning of the pipes, two of them rolled off and fell into a gap between two stillages. Mr Beresford was standing within this gap and the second pipe fell onto him, fatally crushing him.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Mark Welsh said: "This was a wholly avoidable incident, caused by the failure of both companies to follow safe systems of work, and a failure to identify the risks.

"This tragic incident led to the avoidable death of a young man. There was a lack of planning for the work carried out and, as a result, inadequate controls put in place."

(LM)