Company Fined Over Motorway Construction Site Death

Leading engineering and construction company Costain Limited has been fined £250,000 for breaches of health and safety law after one of its employees was killed by a reversing lorry during work on a £65 million scheme to widen the M25 near Dartford in Kent.



Surveyor Richard Caddock, 38, was talking on his mobile phone and did not hear the lorry above the noise of nearby motorway traffic.



The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Costain for failing to ensure that adequate precautions were in place to separate the movement of people and vehicles at the construction site.



Maidstone Crown Court heard that Mr Caddock had left a parked van and was walking along a section of the central reservation that was closed off. As he talked on the phone, an eight-wheel lorry delivering crushed stone entered the same section and reversed into him.



Mr Caddock sustained multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.



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



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.”



The HSE has information on the health and safety risks associated with construction work and guidance on site safety.