A BASILDON company has been fined £40,000 after a worker lost one of his legs.

Basildon Crown Court heard how in February 2014 the worker was processing wood waste at a site operated by Cohart Asbestos Disposal at Archers Field in Basildon.

A company director was operating an excavator, which he was using to transfer waste from a main pile to an adjacent manual-sorting area.

The injured worker moved behind the excavator to pick up an old door and place it in a skip.

As he did so, the operator reversed, crushing the worker beneath one of the tracks.

His right leg was later amputated in hospital.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the company had failed to ensure effective communications between the operator of the excavator and persons working in the yard and the reversing alarm and beacon on the vehicle was broken.

Cohart Asbestos Disposal was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,674 after pleading guilty.

After the case, HSE inspector Edward Crick, said: “Potentially fatal risks arise from operating heavy plant on waste sites, particularly if, as in this case, the vehicle operator’s visibility is restricted.

“This worker suffered life-changing injuries after the company failed to put in place effective measures to protect pedestrian workers from its heavy plant operations.

“Every year many people are killed or seriously injured in incidents involving workplace transport, and there is no excuse for employers to neglect this risk.

“Pedestrians, whether employees or others, should be kept separate from workplace vehicle movements.

“This should be achieved by using physical barriers or safe systems of work that are clear and well supervised.”