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Heavy fine for pedestrian death
Page 17
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CONSTRUCTION FIRMS McNicholas and Instalcom have been fined £37,500 after a pedestrian was run over by a reversing truck in North London.
Both firms pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act following the death of Zafoora Begum last September.
The Old Bailey heard how Begum had attempted to cross the Al2 at Gants Hill, London,near an out-of-use pedestrian crossing. She walked into the works area where a truck operated by Instalcom, the project subcontractor, was parked. As she waited to cross the road the vehicle slowly reversed — the driver did not see her and knocked her over. At the time of the incident McNicholas, the principal contractor for the repair work, had taken
a pedestrian crossing out of action as it was in the middle of the area to be repaved.The works area was closed off to the public with pedestrian barriers.
McNicholas had stipulated that no vehicle should reverse unless another person guided it back but when the accident happened the driver had reversed without the aid of a banksman.
HSE inspector Alec Ferguson says the death could have been avoided: "Where drivers of vehicles have a restricted field of view, and particularly when reversing, employers must take effective measures to ensure that persons are not at risk of injury."
McNicholas was ordered to pay £25,000 plus £12,700 costs to the HSE; Instalcom was fined £12,500 plus £10,000 costs.