Two firms fined £80,000 after worker killed by concrete hose

UCS Civils and Pochin Concrete Pumping have been fined a total of £80,000 after a worker was killed during a concrete pour when a suspended hose whipped round and struck him.

Michael Broughton was working with a group of employees at pouring concrete to form the floor of an office building at the Redhouse Interchange near Adwick le Street, Doncaster.

A truck-mounted concrete pump was being used to take fresh concrete from delivery lorries to the building floor. A suspended hose used to pour the concrete whipped violently when the pump was restarted.

Broughton was fatally injured while another was thrown some distance.

Market Rasen-based UCS Civils, Broughton's employer, was fined £40,000 at Doncaster Crown Court yesterday, having earlier pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was ordered to pay costs of £31,600.

Pochin Concrete Pumping Ltd of Middlewich, Cheshire also pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay costs of £45,000.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Rob Cooper said:

"This case highlights the need to fully consider all the risks involved when planning work and putting in place measures to control the risk.

"The precautions that should have been adopted were as simple as to ensure that no-one stood close to the end of the flexible delivery hose until concrete was flowing smoothly from it - something which would have not added any significant cost or time to the work."