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Court rejects appeals over £1160,000 fines
Page 35
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Failure to put up adequate warning signs or verbally warn drivers of "perilous cables" led to the death of a truck driver.
A COMPANY DIRECTOR fined £80,000 over the death of a truck driver who was electrocuted when his vehicle made contact with a 33,000-volt overhead cable has had his sentence upheld by the Court of Appeal.
The same sentence against his limited company has also been upheld. The company was blamed for inadequate safety measures and warning signs despite the small cost of introducing those measures.
After being convicted of the offences under the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act in November last year, Francis Michael Lyons of Felsted, Essex was also ordered to pay £35.000 prosecution costs.
The prosecution stemmed from the death of truck driver Nathaniel ScoHan, who was fatally electrocuted when the grab arm of his tipper made contact with an overhead cable at Hollingson Meads Quarry, in Gilston. Harlow, on 10 September 2003.
Lyons Landfill, a limited company directed by Lyons, was convicted of the same offences and received the same sentence.
Both Lyons and the company sought permission to appeal against their sentences but had their appeals rejected by Mr Justice Field, sitting in London's Court of Appeal.
The prosecution alleged Lyons was at fault in failing to erect adequate warning signs or verbally warn drivers coming onto the site about the potentially perilous cables. Field — sitting with Mr Justice Treacy — said the sentencing judge had referred to the tragedy being not simply an isolated incident, but the product of a "systemic failure going on over a period of time".
The safety measures in relation to the cable were "clearly not adequate", the sentencing judge had observed, although they would have cost little to improve.
Field said the judge was entitled to refer to "systemic failures", adding: "it was clear the main deficiencies in safety on the site had endured over a long period of time".
The sentences passed were "stiff", but not excessive, Field concluded, dismissing the appeals. •