Builders merchant fined £2.2m after labourer crushed to death | Construction Enquirer News

Paul Coulson, 56, died after a colleague started a conveyor not realising he had climbed inside it. The incident happened on 22 May 2024 at Herringswell Sawmills, a site in Bury St Edmonds in Suffolk operated by Huws Gray Limited. Coulson, a labourer, had been tasked with removing plastic packaging from pallets of timber before they could be processed at the mill. He had climbed within the framework of the conveyor to access some of the packaging but another operative, who could not see him from his location, started the conveyor. This resulted in the pack of timber moving forwards and colliding with Coulson. The operative, who could see that the pack of timber was not moving along the conveyor as it should, reversed it before changing its direction. This resulted in the pack of timber moving forwards again – colliding with Coulson for a second time. The crush injuries sustained were so significant that he died at the scene. An HSE investigation found that the company – which provides supplies to the building trade from hundreds of sites across Great Britain – had previously identified that employees were accessing the danger zone within the conveyor and placed signage asking employees not to do so. But CCTV analysis revealed that between 14 April and 23 May 2024, operatives entered within the framework of the conveyor on 19 different occasions. Although the company had placed stickers on the conveyor in a bid to tackle the working practice, no further action was taken to ...