A construction supplier has been prosecuted after a worker was seriously injured when he came into contact with overhead power lines while driving a tipper vehicle.

Mick George Ltd of Lancaster Way, Huntingdon, has been fined £566,670 with £9,000 in costs after pleading guilty to a breach of Regulation 25(3) of Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM).

Northampton Crown Court heard that a driver employed by the company was emptying a load of soil from his tipper vehicle at the site of a new waste transfer station in Northampton on 09 March 2016.

Mick George Ltd had already identified the need for Permanent Protection Structures (goalposts) but after an initial delay, only one structure was installed. In order to empty the final remains of the load from his vehicle, the driver pulled forward with the body raised and the vehicle touched, or came close to touching, the 33KVoverhead power lines (OPL's). The vehicle suffered minor damage, however the driver was unhurt.

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A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation showed the company should have assessed the risks from OPL's more rigorously and realised its system of work was inadequate to reduce the risk of tipper vehicles striking an OPL.

Speaking after the sentencing, HSE inspector Stuart Parry said: "Every year in the UK, two people are killed and many more injured when mechanical plant and machinery comes into contact or close proximity to OPL's. This was a very serious incident and it is fortunate nobody was injured as a result.

"A suitable and sufficient assessment would have identified the need to contact the Distribution Network Operator, Western Power, to request the OPL's were diverted underground prior to the commencement of construction. If this was not reasonably practicable, Mick George Ltd should have erected goalposts either side of the OPL's to warn drivers about the OPL's."

(LM/MH)