Unsuitable traffic management at a roadworks site on the A50 led to a motorist being killed after he collided with a stationary flatbed lorry. Enterprise (AOL) and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services were each fined £225,000 and ordered to pay £100,000 in costs at Liverpool Crown Court last Friday after an investigation by the Health & Safety Executive.

The motorist had failed to negotiate a bend at a road closure on the westbound carriageway of the A50 near Uttoxeter at around 4am on 25 November 2007 and hit the flatbed lorry owned by Enterprise. The road had been closed at the junction with the A522 while works were carried out to overhead power lines and the central reservation barrier.

Traffic management had been the responsibility of Enterprise and Balfour Beatty was managing the works. The HSE found that traffic management was unsuitable as it was not clear that the road ahead was closed and that drivers had to exit the A50 at the junction with the A522.

The investigation also found that Enterprise failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and that Balfour Beatty failed to properly assess the risk assessment or that the system being proposed was adequate. In addition Balfour Beatty also failed to adequately monitor the work of its subcontractors.

The A50 had been reduced to one lane prior to the works and vehicles were then diverted off the main carriageway and onto the A522, which involved a sharp left hand bend. However the speed limit had not been reduced so vehicles were still able to travel at up to 70MPH.

After the hearing HSE inspector Katharine Walker said: “Enterprise relied on a generic risk assessment for a lane closure rather than properly assessing the road and implementing a suitable system of traffic management for a full closure. 

“As the organisation responsible for what happened on the road, Balfour Beatty should have checked the assessment and identified this failing.

“Instead a man was killed and never made it home – a tragic death that could have been avoided.”

Both companies have lodged an appeal against conviction.

(Photo: Man vyi)

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