County council pays out nearly £40k after serious injury at depot

A county council has been ordered to pay out more than £37,000 in fines and costs after an employee was seriously injured at one of its depots.

Powys County Council earlier this month pleaded guilty at Llandrindod Wells Magistrates’ Court to two breaches of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 over the incident at its depot in Ystradgynlais.

The 45-year-old employee affected, Andre ‘Dean’ Colamazza, 45, and his colleagues had been moving large concrete barriers using a telescopic handler on 12 June 2012.

The Health and Safety Executive discovered during its investigation that after one of the 2.5-tonne, three-metre barriers had been laid on wooden bearers, it toppled over and knocked Colamazza to the ground, crushing his left leg.

Colamazza, who suffered three fractures and a shattered knee cap, remained in hospital for five weeks. He has since made a partial recovery and returned to work at the council.

The HSE told the court that the incident occurred because the workers moving the barriers were using inappropriate equipment and an unsafe system of work.

None of the employees asked to move the barriers had been trained to do so and no risk assessment had been carried out by Powys to determine a safe system of work.

The council did, at the time of the incident, own equipment which was suitable for moving concrete barriers. However, this was kept at the premises of one of its contractors and the team at the depot were unaware of its existence.

Powys was fined a total of £24,000 and ordered to pay £13,528 in costs.

HSE Inspector Sarah Baldwin-Jones said: ”There is no excuse for employers failing to safeguard their workers. Had Mr Colamazza and his colleagues been properly trained to safely move the concrete barriers, using the correct equipment, and a proper risk assessment carried out by Powys County Council, this incident would not have occurred and Mr Colamazza would not have been seriously injured.”