A company has been prosecuted after a worker became trapped in a trench during a house renovation scheme in Falkland, Fife.

Wallace Roofing and Building Limited, of Star, Glenrothes, Fife, pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £14,000.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard how the company was contracted to renovate the property in September 2011.

As employees began using a excavator to dig a trench which would connect the drainage system of the old property with a new extension, they came across a boulder preventing them from digging further.

The excavator was used to try and move the rock, with the injured man in the trench helping to guide the machine. However, during this one of the 9ft deep trench walls subsided, burying the worker under the dislodged earth.


Workers immediately started digging the soil away from the man's head to allow him to breathe. Emergency services eventually arrived and dug the victim free. He remained in hospital for three weeks and his injuries included a broken shoulder and collarbone, as well as punctures to both of his lungs and fractures to all but two of his ribs.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the trench had not been supported or 'stepped back', to control the risk of the trench collapsing. In addition, it was found no one had formal health and safety training for managing a construction site and the work involving the excavation of the trench had not been risk assessed. As a result, workers were given instructions through verbal briefings rather than detailed, mapped out planning.

HSE Inspector Ritchie McCrae said: "The risks associated with collapsing excavation walls are well known, as are the necessary control measures which could easily have been employed.

"On this occasion, the company failed to identify the risk and consequently there was a total absence of any control measure which would have prevented this incident from occurring. The injured worker sustained serious, permanent injury and is extremely lucky to still be alive."

(LM/MH)