A Dorset contractor has been fined £100,000 after a steel-fixer was crushed by a wall during excavation work, days after consultants raised safety issues on site.
According to a statement from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 69-year-old Patrick Grant was left with life-changing injuries after the incident at a Matrod Frampton housebuilding site in Poole in August 2022.
A breeze block wall had been back-filled too early, before mortar had properly set. The wall then collapsed while Grant was working at the lower level of an excavation, crushing him against a concrete floor, the watchdog said.
Emergency services attended, but there was no emergency rescue plan in place, and the use of an unstable ladder to access the deep excavation delayed attempts to rescue him, it added.
Grant had to be hoisted out by the fire service before being airlifted to hospital.
The HSE said its investigators identified that there was no temporary works design for the blockwork wall, nor for any other temporary work structures at the site.
“Matrod Frampton failed to appoint either a temporary works coordinator or a temporary works supervisor, despite this being highlighted as a serious concern in a consultants’ safety report it received just eight days before the incident,” the watchdog added.
“Without a temporary works procedure in place, groundworkers backfilled the wall prematurely, leading directly to its collapse.”
According to the HSE, Matrod Frampton Ltd, of Wimborne, Dorset, pleaded guilty at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on 5 December 2025 to breaching Regulations 13(1) and 19(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.
It was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £8,242 costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge.
HSE inspector Alexander Ashen said: “The correct design and execution of temporary works is an essential element of risk prevention in construction.
“This incident illustrates what can happen when temporary works are not properly organised. Matrod Frampton Ltd is an established construction company, and a temporary works procedure should have been implemented as a matter of course.”
Temporary works on construction sites include trenches, excavations, temporary slopes and stockpiles, formwork, falsework, propping, shoring, edge protection, scaffolding, site fencing and signage.
Ashen added: “The fact that the company’s own health and safety consultants raised this issue eight days before the incident makes this wholly avoidable event all the more tragic.
“HSE will not hesitate to take action against companies that fail to properly plan and manage serious risks on construction sites.”
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Ian Weinfass