A BASING View firm has been fined for a safety breach after a worker was crushed by a vehicle against a steel post.

The man had to have his spleen and most of his pancreas removed and was in hospital for four months following the incident in a workshop in West Drayton near London on September 25 last year.

Yesterday RVC Engineering, of Springpark House, Basing View, was fined £6,600 and ordered to pay £1,087 in costs at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after admitting a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The worker was acting as a lookout as others tried to shunt a broken-down telehandler into the RVC workshop by pushing it with a reversing HGV lorry.

The man, from Newbury, was trapped between the telehandler and the steel post for a few minutes and suffered severe crush injuries.

He has not been able to return to work since being crushed.

The prosecution was brought by the Health and Safety Executive.

After the case, inspector Pete Collingwood said: “A worker suffered a very serious injury from what was perceived to be an innocuous operation. It was an entirely preventable injury as the manoeuvre could have been conducted without the need for his involvement.

“Crush injuries are common from reversing vehicles in industry. RVC Engineering should have planned this operation carefully despite it being of a short duration and then ensured the whole thing was adequately supervised.”