A temporary access equipment company has been fined £1.6m after a 24-year-old worker was crushed to death.
Jack Phillips was killed on 8 August 2019 while working for Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services UK Ltd at South Cliff Tower in Eastbourne.
Phillips had been assisting while temporary mast climber work platform sections were being lifted by a lorry-mounted crane.
The load fell on him when the lifting sling attached to the crane snapped.
A joint investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Sussex Police found Brand Energy & Infrastructure Services UK Ltd, trading as Lyndon SGB, failed to properly plan the lifting operation of the work platform and to identify a requirement for safe exclusion zones.
‘A wholly avoidable death’
The company also failed to have a suitable robust system in place to ensure all accessories were thoroughly examined or disposed of when expired. This resulted in out-of-date slings being used.
Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services UK Ltd, of Kingston Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £1.6m and ordered to pay £23,193.60 in costs at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on 27 November 2024.
Phillips’s parents, Scot and Nichola, said in a statement: “How do you put into words the utter devastation you feel. Our child, our only son, is dead. Our life, our family’s life has now changed forever. We are no longer complete without Jack, we will never see our baby boy, the boy we nurtured and helped grow into a young man, get married, raise a family, or grow old.”
HSE principal inspector Ross Carter said: “This tragic incident led to the wholly avoidable death of a young man. This death could so easily have been prevented if Jack’s employer had fulfilled its statutory duty to plan and manage the risks associated with lifting equipment and lifting operations.”
