A utilities contractor has been fined £12,000 after a worker was injured when clipped by a bus passing through its roadworks.
Rebeck Communications Ltd was employed to lay a pipe across Station Road in Long Bucky, Northamptonshire on the 14th May 2014.
Northampton magistrates heard that it is usual to have a maintained 500mm safety zone as a restricted area when undertaking this kind of work. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the road was 4.8 metres wide and was classified as ‘narrow lanes’.
Rebeck opted for a temporary traffic management system, allowing one lane to be closed and traffic passing on the remaining live lane.
However, during the reinstatement of the road surface at the centre point of the road, a worker was struck by a bus causing. He dislocated a knee and suffered severe ligament and muscle damage.
The court was told the half-metre safety zone was not being maintained and no other control measures were in place. It was suggested that the worker might have had to manoeuvre into the live traffic lane briefly to position some equipment as the bus was passing.
Rebeck Communications Ltd, of Eagle House, Billing Road, Northampton, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 26(2) of the Construction, Design and Management Regulations 2007 and was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £1293.