Fines totalling more than £1M have been handed to Crossrail tunnelling contractor Bam Ferrovial Kier (BFK) after safety failings on the project led to a series of incidents including the death of a worker.

 

BFK employee Renè Tkácik died after being crushed by falling wet concrete in tunnels around the Fisher Street area in March 2014.

 

He had been working for a team enlarging a tunnel by removing rings of an existing pilot tunnel and spraying walls with liquid concrete when the incident happened, Southwark Crown Court heard last week.

 

Another incident saw Ian Hughes struck by a reversing excavator when collecting equipment from inside a nearby tunnel in January 2015. And six days later Alex Vizitiu was assisting with the cleaning of pipes for spraying liquid concrete when, due to a lack of communication, he was hit by pressurised water and concrete debris. Both suffered serious injuries.

 

Investigations by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that on all three occasions there had been a failure to properly enforce so called ‘exclusion zones’ that help to protect workers from harm.

 

“The omission to implement exclusion zones in a high hazard environment was a consistent failure in this case,” said HSE head of operations Annette Hall.

 

The investigation also found a failure to provide a safe system of work relating to the operations Renè Tkácik and Alex Vizitiu were working on. There was also a failure to properly maintain the excavator which reversed into Ian Hughes.

 

“It was this joint venture’s duty to protect its dedicated and highly skilled workforce,” added Annette Hall. “On these three occasions, BFK failed in its duty, with tragic consequences for Renè Tkácik and his family.”

 

A statement on behalf of the joint venture read: “BFK acknowledges and accepts the sentencing decision of the Court and is fully committed to achieving high standards of health and safety. It is with deep regret that these incidents ever occurred and BFK will continue to strive to achieve a working environment free from incident.”

 

Crossrail programme director Simon Wright said: “Everyone who works on Crossrail has been affected by the death of Renè Tkácik in March 2014. Crossrail has a good safety record and sets the most stringent contractor safety requirements in the industry. There is nothing so important on Crossrail that it cannot be done safely.”

 

(Photo: Crossrail)