Skip company and owner prosecuted for worker death

Kevin Hoare, director of South Coast Skips, has been prosecuted along with his company for the death of 66-year-old Lindsay Campbell.

Mr Campbell was working in an excavator bucket with another man (an agency worker) when it tipped. Both of them fell 9 meters down from the bucket and on to a concrete floor killing Mr Campbell and causing the other worker serious leg injuries. The incident took place at the company's Rudford Industrial Estate premises.

The bucket tipped due to a loss of hydraulic pressure. It was not designed to lift people and therefore had no safety equipment present in case such a problem occurred.

As the HSE explains:

"South Coast Skips Ltd of Rudford Industrial Estate, Ford, Arundel pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act, 1974 (HASWA,1974) was fined £65,000 and ordered to pay costs of £25,000.

Mr Kevin Hoare, 65, of Fareham, Hampshire pleaded guilty to section 37 of HASWA, 1974 and was given a 12 month custodial sentence suspended for 18 months."

This was an accident that could have very easily been avoided if the right training had been given and safe working at height practices employed. Book a work at height course now with stuart@demolishdismantle.co.uk.

Source: HSE