Company fined £2m after labourer crushed on site

A building trades merchant has been fined more than £2m after a worker was crushed to death by a three-tonne pallet of timber.

Paul Coulson died at Herringswell Sawmills, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, after a colleague started a conveyor not realising the 56-year-old labourer had climbed inside it, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said.

The incident happened at a site operated by Huws Gray Limited, based in Anglesey, Wales, on 22 May 2024.

On Thursday at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court, the company was fined after pleading guilty to a breach of health and safety law.

Coulson had been tasked with removing plastic packaging from pallets of timber before they could be processed at the mill.

He had climbed within the framework of the conveyor to access some of the packaging, but another operative, who could not see Coulson from his location, started the conveyor, which resulted in the pack of timber moving forward and colliding with him, the HSE said.

An investigation by the HSE found that the company, which provides supplies to the building trade at hundreds of sites across Great Britain, had previously identified that employees were accessing the danger zone within the conveyor and placed signage asking them not to do so.

However, CCTV analysis showed that between 14 April and 23 May 2024, operatives entered this area of the conveyor on 19 occasions, the HSE said.

The measures subsequently introduced to reduce the risk included guarding the conveyor to prevent access, changing the system of work so that the pallets were unwrapped before being placed on the conveyor, as well as installing more CCTV to allow all angles to be seen by those operating it, the HSE said.

HSE inspector Joanne Williams said it was a "staggering failure" that had led to the death of Coulson.

"Had Huws Gray Limited taken robust action when they became aware of the problem, Paul Coulson would be alive today," she added.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 Section 2(1).

It was fined £2.2m, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,929.15.

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