{"id":838473,"date":"2025-04-02T08:11:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T13:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/firm-and-director-fined-18000-after-worker-buried-during-excavation\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T08:11:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T13:11:47","slug":"firm-and-director-fined-18000-after-worker-buried-during-excavation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/firm-and-director-fined-18000-after-worker-buried-during-excavation\/","title":{"rendered":"Firm and director fined \u00a318,000 after worker buried during excavation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wrapper_sleeve\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/04\/ED-ONLY_HSE_shutterstock_2188028785.webp\"   alt=\"ED-ONLY_HSE_shutterstock_2188028785.webp\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A company and its director have been fined \u00a318,000 after a man was injured when a wall collapse led to him bing buried during excavation work in West Sussex.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_517675\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/04\/JHE-Construction-Limited1-225x300-1.webp\" alt width=\"225\" height=\"300\"><\/p>\n<p>The collapsed excavation<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>JHE Construction and its director Jordan Hay-Ellis pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety laws following the incident on 23 February 2023, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said.<\/p>\n<p>The company had been contracted to complete a barn conversion, which included the installation of a new septic tank.<\/p>\n<p>During the installation of the tank, workers had to dig a three metre deep excavation but no precautions were taken to prevent its collapse, the HSE said last week in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Edward Keeley, 30, and two colleagues were in the hole preparing to install a concrete base for the septic tank at Lone Oak Farm when the walls collapsed on them, the health and safety watchdog added.<\/p>\n<p>Keeley was struck by falling soil which resulted in multiple bone fractures and required him to be dug out, the HSE said.<\/p>\n<p>An HSE investigation found that no precautions had been taken to prevent the collapse of the excavation, \u201cyet the men were expected to work in it\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>HSE inspector Nathan Kent said: \u201cThe risk associated with excavation collapse is well understood within the construction industry and this incident was easily foreseeable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll excavation work should be supported or battered back. Failure to do so in this case resulted in a young man sustaining very serious injuries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHSE will not hesitate to take action against companies which do not do all they can to keep people safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>HSE guidance advises that all work of this nature should be correctly planned, including whether any temporary support structures should be used.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_517677\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/04\/JHE-Construction-Limited3-225x300-1.webp\" alt width=\"225\" height=\"300\"><\/p>\n<p>The septic tank<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This may also include battering the excavation sides to make it safer.<\/p>\n<p>Both JHE Construction Ltd and Hay-Ellis, 33, of Icarus Avenue, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, pleaded guilty to breaching the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, the HSE said.<\/p>\n<p>The firm was fined \u00a316,000 and ordered to pay \u00a32,612 in costs at Brighton Magistrates Court on 24 March.<\/p>\n<p>Hay-Ellis was fined \u00a32,000 and ordered to pay \u00a31,000 costs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/health-and-safety\/firm-and-director-fined-18000-after-worker-buried-during-excavation-01-04-2025\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Nicola Harley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A company and its director have been fined \u00a318,000 after a man was injured when a wall collapse led to him bing buried during excavation work in West Sussex. The collapsed excavation JHE Construction and its director Jordan Hay-Ellis pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety laws following the incident on 23 February 2023, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":838474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[891,22853],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-838473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-director","8":"category-fined"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}