Worker killed while assisting a reversing lorry

Mold Crown Court heard how Philip Ledward, aged 62, an employee of Arkenfield Stable Hire Limited (ASHL), was assisting one of the company’s lorry drivers when he was struck by a passing car and received fatal injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident, which occurred in November 2011, at Boundary Garage, Ellesmere Road, Bronington, found that there was no safe system of work in place for controlling risks from workplace transport.

Arkenfield Stable Hire Limited, of Birch House, Back Lane, Coton, Whitchurch, was fined a total of £7,500 and ordered to pay costs of £5,000 after pleading guilty to an offence under Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Damian Corbett said: “Workplace transport continues to be a major cause of fatal and serious injury. Estimates suggest that up to one-third of all road traffic accidents involve someone who is at work at the time.”