Crossrail contractors fined £1m after death of worker

CONTRACTORS WORKING on the Crossrail project have been fined more than £1m over the death of a worker and two other incidents.

A joint venture of three companies, Bam, Ferrovial and Kier (BFK), pleaded guilty to three offences following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Southwark Crown Court heard that Rene Tkacik died after being crushed by falling wet concrete in March 2014.

Two other men were injured in separate incidents within six days of one another in January 2015.

All three incidents took place in the tunnels around the Fisher Street area of central London.

Mr Tkacik, 43, from Slovakia, was working to enlarge the tunnel by removing rings of the existing pilot tunnel and spraying walls with liquid concrete, when a section of the roof collapsed, fatally crushing him.

On January 16, 2015 Terence ‘Ian’ Hughes was collecting some equipment from inside one of the tunnels when he was struck by a reversing excavator. Six days later Alex Vizitiu, who was part of a team spraying liquid concrete lining, was hit by pressurised water and concrete debris.

HSE said its investigation found a failure to provide a safe system of work relating to the operations Mr Tkacik and Mr Vizitiu were working on and also found there was a failure to properly maintain the excavator which reversed into Mr Hughes.

On all three occasions, the investigation found a failure to properly enforce exclusion zones that would have helped protect workers from foreseeable harm.

BFK pleaded guilty to three offences. In relation to the death of Mr Tkacik, it admitted breaching Regulation 10(2) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £300,000. It also pleaded guilty to two separate breaches of Section 22 (1a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, relating to the two incidents in January 2015.

The joint venture was fined £600,000 for the incident involving Mr Hughes, and £165,000 for the incident relating to Mr Vizitiu. The total fine is £1,065,000, and the consortium was also ordered to pay costs of £42,337.28.

HSE head of operations Annette Hall said: “The omission to implement exclusion zones in a high-hazard environment was a consistent failure in this case.

“Had simple measures such as these been taken, all three incidents could have been prevented, and Rene Tkacik may not have died.”