Construction firm fined over newbuild homes death

A firm has been fined after a graduate was killed while unsupervised on a newbuild homes construction site.

James Rourke, 22, was run over by a construction vehicle whose driver did not see him in Cambridgeshire in 2019 - a few months after leaving university.

His employers, Materials Movement Limited (MML), were fined £133,300 at Peterborough Magistrates' Court after admitting a health and safety offence.

It is the second time MML have been convicted over a fatality.

It was fined after Stephen Hampton died on a site in north London after an old fuel storage tank he was cutting up exploded in 2017.

Prosecutor Richard Padley said MML "would have been aware" of the investigation into that death when Mr Rourke died.

On Monday, 18 November 2019 Mr Rourke, from Leigh-on-Sea, in Essex, was sent to a construction site in Brampton but Mr Padley told the court there was "no supervision on site at the time".

Mr Rourke had been attaching warning signs to fencing when he was hit.

The Health and Safety Executive, who investigated, said it found MML had failed to plan and manage the work.

An inquest jury previously found no banksman - trained to direct vehicles - was present, the excavator was parked in an "area of restricted movement" and it had "not been instructed to operate".

In a victim impact statement read by the prosecutor, Mr Rourke's mother, Clare, said "the sunshine has been taken from our lives and the dark gap is immense".

She added that her son was "failed by the very people entrusted to look after him".

Mr Rourke's aunt added: "This event was totally avoidable and one which will live with us forever. The pain of grief is not healing over time."

District Judge Ken Sheraton said "systems were in place but not effectively adhered to".

Angus Withington KC, representing MML, said the company "sincerely regrets" the "profound effect" the incident had had on Mr Rourke's family.

Mr Withington said there were "different circumstances" between the two deaths, with Mr Hampton working for a subcontractor.

The Henlow-based firm had earlier pleaded guilty to contravening a health and safety regulation.

MML - which has been contacted by the BBC for comment - was also ordered to pay funeral and prosecution costs.

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