YORK-BASED railway giant Jarvis has been ordered to pay more than £36,000 after one of its workers suffered a massive electric shock.

Jarvis Facilities was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £32,500 costs after being found guilty of breaching health and safety rules at Tollerton sidings, near York, on May 2, 2001. The firm had denied the charge.

Crane driver Stephen Foster, 50, suffered a broken ankle and burns when his crane struck a 25,000 volt overhead line while he was delivering rails to the middle of the track on the site.

District Judge Graham Parkinson told Harrogate Magistrates Court there had been a "casual approach to safety at the Tollerton sidings on that day".

Mr Foster's workmate, Gordon Burn, was stranded on the lorry, which was carrying the crane, for more than an hour until the overhead line could be switched off. Another worker received a burn to his hand.

Judge Parkinson said the safety briefing on the day of the accident was carried out in a less-than-satisfactory manner.

He said Mr Foster, who lifted the arm of his crane to avoid hitting workmen and struck the electrified line, should not have been told to drop the rails on to the middle of the track.

The judge said if supervision by the controller of site safety had been more efficient, the accident could have been avoided.

He said: "He (Mr Foster) was not blameless in this incident. To avoid the chains hitting the men who were working, he temporarily forgot about the overhead wire.

"This was the sort of human failing, which, of course, the rules are designed to prevent.

"The duty of the employer to the employee to provide a safe system of work was breached."

Mark Turner QC, for Jarvis, said: "This is an example of a system going wrong. It was a unique event."

He said Jarvis, which took over at Tollerton one month before the accident, was unable to do anything about the problem at management level.

A Jarvis spokeswoman said after the case: "Jarvis Facilities Ltd takes the health and safety at work of all its employees extremely seriously and is committed to ensuring regulatory compliance throughout its business practices."

Updated: 09:43 Saturday, September 06, 2003