Firm fined £400,000 over bus deathAn accident where a worker died after being crushed by a bus led to a major company being fined £400,000 at Southwark Crown Court.
Centrewest London Buses - part of the First Group based at Macmillan House, Paddington Station in Westminster, were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for safety failings leading up to the incident on May 18, 2004.
The firm admitted a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act on 16 December. Costs are to be determined at a separate hearing.
The court heard that 59-year-old Robert Cherry, from Ruislip, was preparing one of the buses at the station in Uxbridge Bus Garage in Bakers Court, Hillingdon, Middlesex. As he stepped in between two parked buses, the front bus lurched backwards, crushing him against the rear and stationary vehicle. He died at the scene.
The HSE investigation showed that traffic management at the garage was poor, particularly when buses left the garage at the start of the working day. The garage had originally been designed to hold 65 buses, but at the time of Mr Cherry's death it was the base for 119 vehicles. The garage was not well lit and drivers carrying out checks were forced to walk between closely parked buses that were manoeuvring to leave the garage.
HSE inspector, Bill Hazleton said: "Robert Cherry died because his employer did not do enough to ensure his safety or that of his colleagues."
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