Demolition worker hit on head by 20 metre steel girder
A UK demolition contractor was fined today after a worker was left with devastating injuries when he was struck by a metal girder, reports Construction Enquirer.
Gareth Dodds, from South Shields, Tyne & Wear, was working on a demolition site near Doncaster, when he was hit on the head by a 20 metre steel girder being moved by a hydraulic excavator in November 2008.
The court heard that on the day of the incident, Dodds, then 28, was one of four workers on site at the former All Saints School in Rossington, South Yorkshire. Demolition of a building had been underway for some time which involved the men working close to the excavators, moving materials around. Employees were sorting materials on the site and there were no safeguards in place to keep them a safe distance from the machines and their loads.
Dodds was hit by the girder as it was being moved. He suffered extensive head injuries and fractured vertebrae. More than two years after the incident he is still suffering the effects of his life-changing injuries.
James Hudson Demolition Ltd of Browside Farm, Medley Lane, Northowram, Halifax, pleaded guilty to safety charges and was fined £7,500 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs.
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