A CHARITABLE trust has been fined and ordered to pay more than £40,000 after a volunteer from Basingstoke was killed by a collapsing wall during restoration work on the Wilts and Berks Canal.
Father-of-two Peter Konitzer was fatally crushed when a section of a wall collapsed onto him in an excavation at Pewsham Locks, Chippenham, on August 24, 2016.
The 63-year-old had been inside the excavation removing temporary propping that was supporting the wall when the section collapsed.
Peter, who lived in Sherfield-on-Loddon, was married to his wife Margot, a Hospital Radio Basingstoke presenter, for 34 years and had two children, a son and a daughter.
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Wilts and Berks Canal Trust undertook the restoration work, for which Peter was volunteering, as part of its project to preserve, conserve and improve the route of the Wilts and Berks Canal.
A joint investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Wiltshire Police found Wilts and Berks Canal Trust had failed to ensure the safety of volunteers who were working within the excavation. The temporary propping was found to be 'inadequate' and there was 'no clear' method for the safe installation or removal of props during this renovation work.
The trust routinely used volunteers to assist in work to undertake tasks including clearing rubbish and overgrowth from various canal sites and general gardening-type duties but had increasingly used volunteers for light construction works.
Wilts and Berks Canal Trust, of Dauntsey Lock, Chippenham, Wiltshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The trust was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £10,822 in costs at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on June 24.
HSE inspector James Lucas said: “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident. The situation which led to Peter’s death would not have arisen had the temporary structural works been properly planned and implemented to ensure a suitable safe system of work prior to the incident.
“It is essential that those in control of work of this nature devise safe methods of working and to provide the necessary information, instruction, and training to their workers to ensure their safety.”
This prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Iain Jordan and supported by HSE paralegal officer Rebecca Withell.
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