UK Demolition Services Ltd. has been fined after a teenage worker's arm was amputated after being crushed during the demolition of old Grand Cinema in Ramsey town centre in Cambridgeshire.
Thomas Bird, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, was working as a labourer for UK Demolition Services Ltd on the old cinema site in Great Whyte, Ramsey on 17 March 2010.
Mr Bird, then 19, was loading debris into the selector grab of a hydraulic excavator when it swung round and hit him, crushing his right arm against the building. He was airlifted to hospital but surgeons were unable to save his arm and it was amputated below the elbow.
Huntingdon Magistrates' Court was told the firm had failed to put in place arrangements to ensure construction plant did not inadvertently move and put ground workers at risk of being struck.
The company, of Brownhills Business Park, Lindon Road, Brownhills, Walsall, West Midlands admitted two breaches of health and safety legislation: Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974; and Regulation 37 (1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. It was fined £4,000 for each breach and ordered to pay £3,500 costs.