Company fined after worker crushed loading lorry

A company in Kent has been fined £175,000 following the death of an employee loading a lorry.

Liam McArdle, from Gravesend, was fatally crushed by an excavator attachment while working for Erith Plant Services.

A demolition grab, attached to an excavator, fell onto the 24-year-old while it was loaded onto a lorry at Erith Plant Services’ workshop at Eastern Quarry on Watling Steet, Swanscombe, on September 21, 2021.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the incident found Erith Plant Services failed to ensure there was a safe method of work while loading and unloading excavators and attachments.

The company failed to ensure steps were taken to ensure HGV drivers fully engaged the quick hitch when moving attachments during loading and unloading activities.

There was also no defined segregation between vehicles and pedestrians at the firm’s Eastern Quarry workshop, nor was there suitable supervision of work activities.

HSE guidance says the plan for any lifting operation must address the foreseeable risks involved in the work and identify the appropriate resources, including people, necessary for the safe completion of the job.

McArdle’s father, Declan McArdle, said in his victim personal statement: “The pain of losing my son has been and will continue to be unbearable.

“Liam worked hard and wanted to learn. He wanted to follow in my footsteps, and I was proud of the person he was becoming.”

Erith Plant Services, of Queen Street, Erith, Kent, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The company was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £37,804 in costs at Woolwich Crown Court on March 27, 2024.

HSE inspector Joanne Williams said: “This tragic death serves as an important reminder that workers need to be trained and that there is always the potential for an attachment to fall during the operation of excavators.

“Employers need to ensure that work practices are maintained to keep workers away from the danger areas during lifting activities.”

This HSE prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Alan Hughes and supported by HSE paralegal officer Helen Jacob.

The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety.