Travis Perkins fined £2m after dad-of-three killed by timber-load lorry fall
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A major building supplies firm has been fined £2 million after a “grossly inadequate and unsafe” timber load fell from a lorry and killed a dad-of-three in an oncoming car. Jack Stevens, 28, was driving his BMW when materials pierced his windscreen and killed him on the A26 in Newhaven, East Sussex on May 13, 2020.
Travis Perkins Trading Company Limited pleaded guilty to three offences under health and safety laws in November last year. Prosecutor Richard Heller told Hove Crown Court on Thursday that the business, said to be the largest in the UK operating around 600 outlets, admitted a breach of general duty and two regulatory breaches over the fatal incident.At the sentencing hearing, footage showed the moment the timber came loose and hit Mr Stevens’ car and across the road.
Mr Heller said further footage not shown in court also captured “other road users being visibly shocked upon looking into the car”. A review of how the timber load was secured was carried out by the Health and Safety Executive concluded “the security of the load was grossly inadequate and unsafe from the point of entering the public road network”, the court heard.
It added that the incident was “entirely foreseeable and preventable” with proper planning and practices in place after the mass of six timbers and other materials was secured with an “insufficient” single strap. The court heard the load had been checked by the driver and another employee before leaving the company’s site in Newhaven at around 7:30am.
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