A PLANT hire company has been fined more than £200,000, seven-years after a fatal accident at a Maidenhead building.

Ruislip Plant Ltd of Ruislip, Middlesex, pleaded guilty at Reading Crown Court and was fined £99,00 and ordered to pay costs of £116,973.36.

The Court heard on May 13, 2014, Ben Wylie, 24, was assisting the director, the late Noel Kearney, with the maintenance of a high-pressure grease track adjusting mechanism at a Premier Inn construction site in West Street, Maidenhead.

Mr Wylie was struck in the shoulder and chest by a high-pressure jet of oil and a piece of equipment, causing fatal injuries.

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An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the components had been forcibly ejected on the previous day and had sustained damage in that event, reducing the pressure at which it would subsequently fail.

Once the fitting had been ejected, it should not have been refitted.

Despite the fittings having been previously ejected and damaged, Mr Kearney attempted to modify and refit the grease nipple and adaptor to the high-pressure system.

He then began to re-pressurise the tracks by pumping in grease using a hand operated grease gun.

The pressure built in the system and at a critical point the damaged and modified components were again ejected.

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The investigation concluded a pressure test with all suitable safeguards was required in these circumstances but there was no safe system of work during which resulted in the modifications to the grease gun bringing Ben Wylie into the ‘danger zone’.

After the hearing, HSE inspector John Glynn said: “HSE guidance is very specific on how this work should be undertaken and previously ejected or damaged parts must not be reused as they were in this case.

“This incident could have been avoided if Ruislip Plant Ltd had instead undertaken a risk assessment and devised a safe system of work. That safe system of work would necessarily have ensured that new parts were used, and that the safety procedure of a pressure test was performed. However, a new component was not used in this incident and the safety procedure was not adhered to.

“That failure to adhere to the correct procedure for pressure testing was directly causative of this incident. No control measures were put in place by Ruislip Plant Limited and that sadly led to the death of Ben Wylie.”