A judge at Winchester Crown Court ordered Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Limited to pay the sum after the death of Alexander Wright, 27, a geologist working for the company who died while taking soil samples in a trench in Stroud in September 2008.

Detective Inspector Giulia Marogna said after the sentence: “Although no amount of money can balance the loss of a human life, the penalty imposed today marks the gravity of Cotswold Geotechnical failings. The company had a blasé attitude toward health and safety and continued to use outmoded working methods. Alex’s death simply should not have happened.”

Across the globe, three times more people die as a result of their work than because of wars. Over 300 deaths in the UK are caused every year by accidents at work, 30% of these occur due to accidents when vehicles are reversing. Sometimes these unnecessary deaths are due to massive health and safety failings at managerial and directorial level.

This is a landmark case for health and safety reps and will hopefully send out a warning to companies who fail to take seriously their responsibilities to keep their employees safe.

June 2010

"Managing driving for work is as much common sense as running any other part of a business − training and planning of all aspects of operations go a long way to bringing avoidable costs under control."

"In creating a work-related road safety ethos as part of their existing health and safety policies, employers not only make savings that can be delivered straight to their bottom lines − they also save lives playing their part in cutting the number of needless tragedies that take place on our roads every day."

"Responsible firms recognise the duties they have towards their mobile workforce and work very hard to improve the safety of their employees."

(Fitzpatrick, 2008)

(Bond Pearce, 2008)

“This Act gives lower courts the power to impose higher fines for some health and safety offences. It is right that there should be a real deterrent to those businesses and individuals that do not take their health and safety responsibilities seriously. Everyone has the right to work in an environment where risks to their health and safety are properly managed and employers have a duty in law to deliver this.”

(Hackitt, 2009)

There will always be risks associated with driving. Although these cannot be completely controlled an employer has a responsibility to take all reasonable steps to manage these risks down to as low a level as reasonably possible in the same way as they would in the workplace.