Loose pipe penalty

Prosecutions and Claims |
01.07.2006

Building firm Byrne Brothers (Formwork) has been fined £60,000 plus £12,026 costs after an accident in which a worker's pelvis was shattered by a flailing pipeline. Alan Wyatt has not been able to work since the accident in June 2003. Wyatt was working as a mobile pump operator for the firm at a City of London site, pouring concrete using a pump and pipeline. Colleagues were clearing waste concrete from the pipe into a skip with compressed air, when a blockage in the pipe made it recoil and hit Wyatt, who was washing nearby. He suffered a fractured pelvis and a puncture wound to his groin. Byrne Brothers pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.