BAM Nuttall fined more than £800,000 after a worker was struck by a large expanded polystyrene block

BAM Nuttall was fined more than £800,000 after a worker was struck by a large expanded polystyrene (EPS) block.

The circumstances were:

• EPS blocks were being lifted in an excavator bucket on 20 January 2017.
• The lifting operation had not been properly planned.
• BAM had not used appropriate lifting accessories, such as chains or strops, to transport the load; the block was simply held between the arm of the excavator and the bucket
• A block fell and hit him on the head, fracturing three of his vertebrae.

The HSE inspector said:
“This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply using appropriate lifting accessories such as chains and strops to carry out the lifting operation.”