THE GIANT Amey corporation has been fined £600,000 today after one of its sub-contract workers was engulfed in flames from an 11,000-volt electric shock in busy Gloucester city centre in 2015

Steven "Jimmy" Brown from Swindon was working at traffic lights outside the Argos store in Eastgate street, Gloucester, on 28th May 2015 when he dug into a concrete box housing an 11,000 volt cable with his Kango breaker machine.

Witnesses looked on in distress as staff rushed from nearby stores with bottles of water and fire extinguishers to try to put out the flames from Mr Brown's clothing.

Gloucester Crown Court heard that by chance a paramedic was passing the scene and went to Mr Brown's aid.

Mr Brown was working for Richens, sub contractors to Amey, who are Gloucestershire County Council's highways contractors.

The Court today that Mr Brown suffered "large deep burns" to his leg, face and abdomen and was airlifted to a special burns ward in Cardiff.

Mr Brown was then taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where he was put into an induced coma for two weeks. Initially there were concerns that he might also lose his sight. However, Judge Michael Cullum noted, "his sight has returned to pre-accident levels."

The incident caused 650 properties including major stores such as Argos, Boots and Primark to lose power for a short time.

Judge Cullum described it as a "catastrophic accident" and said that Mr Brown suffered "life-changing effects, which are still ongoing, and he has not been able to return to work."

Sam Jones, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, which brought the case against Amey, said Mr Brown suffered a "massive electric shock which brought about very significant and long lasting injuries."

Mr Jones told the Court that there were failures in communication between Amey and the sub-contractors. A cable avoidance specialist had been employed, but his notes were not made available as they should have been to the workers.

"Those notes identified the very cable Mr Brown cut through, but this information was not properly communicated" he explained.

There was also a delay to the work that meant a "permit to dig" had expired and that the site should have been "repeatedly rescanned."

Amey pleaded guilty to contravening health and safety regulations.

Richard Matthews QC, defending, told the court that Amey accepted that an information pack provided to workers "could have been better."

He told the Court "We cannot get away from the fact that the team should not have broken through that concrete box, but site supervisors cannot man mark workers."

Mr Matthews also said that there was a "failure to sufficiently communicate and co-ordinate" the work, but that this was by its nature "high risk and labour intensive work."

The Court heard that the company had won two awards recently in relation to health and safety and Mr Matthews added "The company does a good job in managing safety. It has a record for which it is rightly proud."

In sentencing the Company, the Judge made reference to the awards and said: "I acknowledge the company takes it's responsibilities very seriously."

However he went on to outline the failures in the case.

"It is accepted that there was a inadequate communication from Company to workers, a lack of structure of communication.

"The effect was as if there was a lack of supervision. The contractors, in hindsight, seemed unable to supervise themselves."

The judge said that "although a CAT scanner was used, the notes were not passed on, and the decision was made to use a Kango Breaker despite knowing the cable was there."

Finally he noted the "permit to dig" was not renewed, which he said was down to "a lack of knowledge due to a change in personnel. The work should not have restarted without repeated rescanning."

The Judge fined the company £600,000, and ordered them to pay £15,498 in costs.