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Costain fined £250k for surveyor's death

21 Mar 12 Costain has been fined £250,000 for the death of a surveyor, knocked down by a reversing lorry.

The incident happened in April 2008 during work to widen the M25 near Dartford.

Costain employee Richard Caddock, 38, from Bexleyheath, London, was talking on a mobile phone and could not hear the approaching truck above the noise of nearby motorway traffic, when he was hit from behind.

The Health & Safety Executive prosecuted Costain Limited for failing to ensure adequate precautions were in place to separate the movements of people and vehicles.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Mr Caddock, of Bexleyheath, London, had left a parked van and was walking northbound along a section of the central reservation closed off as part of a £65m scheme to ease congestion between junctions 1b to 3.

As he talked on the phone, a tipper lorry delivering crushed stone entered the same section and reversed northbound. Mr Craddock had walked approximately 30m when the truck hit him.

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The surveyor sustained multiple injuries as a result of being run over by the eight wheel vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.

After the hearing HSE Inspector Melvyn Stancliffe said: "This was a terrible tragedy that could easily have been avoided had Costain Limited implemented basic safety precautions.

"Mr Caddock may have been distracted on the phone, but the drone of nearby traffic was such that he would have struggled to hear the reversing alarm on the lorry regardless. Quite simply the two should never have been allowed to be in the same place at the same time.

"The movement of people and vehicles on construction sites requires careful planning and effective control. It must be considered a critical part of transport management. This case highlights that a failure to be in control can have devastating consequences."

Costain Limited, of Vanwall Business Park in Maidenhead, pleaded guilty to breaching 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in connection to the death. In addition to the £250,000 fine, the company was ordered to pay £45,000 in costs.

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