ONE of Worcestershire's largest construction companies, Thomas Vale of Stourport on Severn, has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,250 after an accident at a building site in Kidderminster. In May 2012, a woman suffered life-changing head injuries when she was hit by a section of fencing that collapsed in a gust of wind as workmen refurbished part of Birmingham Metropolitan College, known as The Piano Building.

The 56-year-old woman from Kidderminster, who does not wish to be named, was walking past the site when two sections of the hoarding blew over and collapsed on her, knocking her down and leaving her unconscious. She suffered substantial head injuries, including severe concussion, a gash on the head and fluid and bruising on the brain. The injuries also affected her balance and senses of hearing, smell and taste. She spent 16 days in hospital and was unable to work for seven months.

Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court was told the woman’s injuries were sustained two weeks after another part of the perimeter fence had blown over in the wind. No one had been hurt on that occasion. Thomas Vale had put up solid fencing around the site to stop dust and debris from escaping, but discounted using concrete foundations for the fence as too many underground services would be disrupted and the fence needed to be moved at intervals for deliveries.

Health and Safety Executive inspectors found that after the first incident, which blew a section of fence out, the firm didn’t seek expert advice on fixing the problem and left the securing and re-building of the fence to inexperienced workers without the correct training. HSE said the project, given it was in a busy pedestrianised town centre, should have been subject to a thorough risk assessment, and a competent design to ensure it did not collapse as the results could have been "forseeably catastrophic". Thomas Vale Construction, which is headquartered in Worcester Road, Stourport, pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 28(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Jo Anderson said: “Thomas Vale Construction had a duty to its workforce and to members of the public to ensure the hoarding around the site was safe. This fencing was constructed using guesswork. The company failed to seek expert advice in order to ensure the hoarding was designed correctly and did not consider the substantial force which strong wind can impart on solid hoardings. This woman, who had parked and was on her way to the shops, suffered life-changing head injuries in what was a preventable incident. Without doubt, though, we could easily have been dealing with a fatal incident.”