Building supplies firm Travis Perkins has been fined £2m after a driver was killed when timber fell onto his car.
The company admitted a trio of offences that contravened the Health and Safety at Work Act over the incident in May 2020 when a load fell from a Travis Perkins lorry and timber went through an oncoming car’s windscreen, killing the driver. The sentence was handed down on 23 January 2025 at Hove Crown Court.
Jack Stevens, a 28-year-old father of three, was killed on 13 May 2020 when a strip of timber fell from the lorry on the A26. The lorry had left Travis Perkins’ depot in Newhaven.
Load not secured
The court was told that despite an internal document saying loads were always properly secured, the timber that fell had not been banded together. A single ratchet strap had been used and was not adequate to secure the load; what’s more, the lashing was insufficient.
Health and safety must be taken very seriously in all areas of the building trade by everyone from owners and operators to new starters filling builders merchants vacancies through companies such as bmcareers.com. To reflect the importance of this and the loss of life in this case, Travis Perkins was given a hefty fine and ordered to pay £85,000 in costs.
Previous incidents
The court had heard that there had been previous incidents of building materials falling from lorries operated by Travis Perkins. These included three steel bars hitting a vehicle in April 2019 and corrugated pipes blowing from a lorry just months earlier.
Judge Christine Henson KC, who delivered the verdict, said the tragedy in 2020 should and could have been avoided. She said the defendant had failed to fulfil its health and safety obligations, although she did acknowledge that Travis Perkins had taken proactive steps to improve safety after the incident.
Travis Perkins’ barrister, Kate Brunner KC, said the builders merchants had apologised to the family of Mr Stevens and took full responsibility for the incident.
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