Crane plunge costs York firm £15,000

10:30am Friday 5th September 2008

A CHERRY-picker “accident waiting to happen” that left a father-of-three in a month-long coma has cost a York firm a £15,015 court bill.

Chris Cook, 44, and another man were at first-floor level when they were catapulted out of the vehicle parked on Bootham, said Paul Robinson, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive.

Eye-witnesses saw an HGV strike the rear arm of the vehicle’s boom which was hanging over the roadway and spin it round 190 degrees, throwing both men into the air. “This was a tragic accident which should never have occurred,” added Mr Robinson. An off-duty police officer and another pedestrian who walked along Bootham shortly before the crash were so appalled by the lack of cones and warning bollards round the cherry-picker they later described it to investigators as “an accident waiting to happen”.

One of them saw a flatback van swerve round the rear of the cherry-picker onto the wrong side of the road narrowly missing another vehicle, said Mr Robinson at York Magistrates Court. But had the vehicle’s owners, William Birch & Sons Ltd, provided its operator with a checklist of safety procedures to carry out, including a risk assessment, the accident could have been prevented.

William Birch & Sons Ltd, of Link Road Court, Osbaldwick, pleaded guilty to not ensuring Mr Cook’s safety and were fined £12,500 with £2,500 prosecution costs and a £15 Government-imposed victim surcharge.

Its managing director Chris Birch said afterwards: “This has been a deeply regrettable incident for a long-established family business with an otherwise excellent safety record. Lessons have been learned to ensure that this will not happen again.”

Mr Cook, who was so badly injured in the accident he was in a coma for a month and at one stage was believed brain-dead, was in court with his wife, Julie, to see the sentence.

She said afterwards they were glad that part of the case was over, but there was still a long way to go.

In court, Julian Goose QC for William Birch & Sons Ltd said it did not know why the accident had happened. The company said it had provided training for the cherry-picker operator, Karl Thackrah, and safety equipment to control traffic round the vehicle.

Mr Thackrah, 37, of Pottery Lane, York, denied an offence of not ensuring Mr Cook’s safety and elected trial by jury. His case was adjourned for committal proceedings.

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