Quarry man wins damages
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A DRIVER whose lorry fell down a quarry face and overturned has won a claim for damages, but the High Court has ruled that the quarry owner, Cory Sand and Ballast, had not contravened the safety provisions of the Mines and Quarries Act.
The Court was told that Cyril English had been driving his truck along the access road to the quarry when it went over the edge.
It was argued that the company was in breach of the duty placed on quarry mangers to ensure that quarrying operations were so carried on as to avoid danger to people working at the quarry.
Finding that the accident was caused by the company's negligence rather than by any breach of its statutory duty, Mr Justice Stocker said that the Act was directed to the risks arising from the fall of materials from the quarry face and did not cover persons falling over the edge of the quarry.
The requirement to provide and maintain safe means of access to every place at a quarry at which any person had to work related to that part of the quarry at which quarrying was being carried out.
It did not cover roadways on which vehicles might be driven around the quarry.
To say that a roadway was a place of work would strain the language of the Act and would render every pothole in the road a breach of the quarry owners' statutory duty.