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Statue of Justice, Old Bailey (licensed CC BY 2.0 on Flickr by Ronnie Macdonald).jpgBuilders’ merchants boss jailed after cyclist killed by lorry’s crane leg
The director of a builders’ merchants in Worcestershire has been sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment following the death of a cyclist who was struck by the leg of a crane that had not been secured properly.
The cyclist, 70-year-old Ella Murray died in hospital four days after the incident which happened on 20 March 2014 of Peterbrook Road, Solihull, West Midlands, reports the Birmingham Mail.
Ragnir Jutla, aged 54 and his company Buildland Limited, which has branches in Redditch and Coventry, were both found guilty of two charges of breaching health and safety legislation in connection with Mrs Murray’s death.
The company was fined £150,000 at Birmingham Crown Court and both it and Jutla were told to pay £27,687 costs each.
The lorry involved in the fatal incident was equipped with a crane for loading and unloading materials.
The court heard that neither a warning light nor a buzzer designed to alert the driver should one of the crane’s supporting legs not be secured was working.
Patrick Upward QC, speaking on behalf of Jutla, told the court: “An incident happened which no-one expected, no-one anticipated and no-one wanted.”
He added: “He made one bad mistake four years ago and he has suffered from that until this day.”
But in his sentencing remarks, Judge Patrick Thomas QC said: “It was a desperate tragedy which resulted in the death of a beloved and lovable lady.
"It was as the jury has found your responsibility.”
He told Jutla: "You found out that there were substantial debts which you had not taken into account.
"I take the view that you were scrambling and cutting corners to keep the business viable.”
The judge said that Jutla, who in his defence had produced a falsified document which claimed to show that safe systems were in place, had “tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the court.”
He also said that the company director had “fought tooth and nail” by attempting to pin the blame on others.
The judge added: “There was cost cutting at the expense of safety and obstruction of justice.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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11 comments
My family and many others have had to move from a private estate situated next door to Buildland.
All was fine until they moved in then we had barking guard dogs all night - bonfires accompanied by a bitter taste in the air -they denied -dozers scooping up gravel etc from a concrete surface - horns -tannoys -dust -diesel fumes - none of which they addressed despite many hand on heart pledges -they just ignored everything and the council failed or didn't want a solution. The refused to spend the cash so we offered to help -nothing !!
We had this for 12 years - they employed a company (you may hear more of them in the next case -yes there is more -which is imminent) to do a noise survey- Clive Cheetham) then shut the place down to ensure there was no noise.
A neighbour requested sound recording equipment and we "commissioned" it with a hammer and dustbin lid just to make sure they addressed the correct recording. Guess what, no audible sound - not even our opening intro !!
I was sorry to leave my home but could not stand the problems they gave us but not before we raised a petition preventing them adding to their trucks and trailers .
Perhaps if the council had reeled them in at the beginning this poor woman would still be around today ? I can't print on here exactly what we wanted addressing but you can imagine !
Louie
What about the driver? No mention of him. After all it was the driver was driving.
This was a prosecution under Health and Safety legislation which is why the driver wasn't prosecuted in this case. The driver would have been prosecuted under the Road Traffic Act.
The directors of BUILDLAND LIMITED are Rugbir Singh Jutla and Satwinder Kaur Jutla - nobody called Ragnir has been a director of it. Rugbir is listed as a person with significant control over BUILDLAND, since he controls BUILDLAND HOLDINGS LIMITED which is its shareholder. BUILDLAND LIMITED has net assets of £2.6 million on its last filed accounts, so I'm sure a £150,000 fine will really hurt it... (?).
This was not a trial of the driver, nor the company under Road Traffic Law, this was a trial of the Company and its Director under Health & Safety Legislation. I'd hope/expect that the driver has also been charged with driving offences.
It shows that the controlling mind of the company did not comply with legislation designed to protect employees and others from work activities. That is why the company was fined and the Director jailed.
This is the kind of appropriate verdict and sentence that is possible when nobody in the court thinks to themselves, "What if I were to commit the same offence driving home tonight." Mainly because not too many jurors or judges transport cranes on their way back from the court.
Believe you are correct there. The jury system in traffic cases is corrupted by the frequent presence of incompetent drivers on the jury.
"He made one bad mistake four years ago and has suffered every day since " - bet he didn't suffer as much as the dead woman or her family? Fundamental H&S error which caused a death, and he deserved to have got far more punishment than he did.
I'd say that's balderdash anyway.
Was he suffering when he falsified documents, which also should be considered a second bad mistake.
Again, unfortunately we have to, compare it to a kid that had a bad braking system. There were suggestions he'd face additional punishment for embelishing his cycling ability, this seems somewhat greater!
Patrick Upward QC, speaking on behalf of Jutla, told the court: “An incident happened which no-one expected, no-one anticipated and no-one wanted."
What a crock of shit, you mean he'd being getting away with H&S breaches for years, failed to check that extrtemely hazardous equipment was secured correctly and that the warning system was never checked to ensure it would warn which is the back up/failsafe.
This however does highlight the disgusting discrepency in how we approach people being killed by vehicles. The Rhyll case were the police basically okayed driving at excessive speed in poor weather conditions and it just being an unfortunate occurence if you kill 4 people despite knowing you had seriously defective tyres all round.
The defence of well it wouldn't have made a difference utterly missed the dangerous driving (because driving around a bend in ice at 50+mph is so obviously not safe) and intent to go out in a machine known to kill people without bothering to check one of the critical and well advetised safety aspects of driving is disgraceful.
Personally I think the 21 months is lenient, it should be manslaughter charges.
More of this required, if a professional driver causes a fatality the safety and vetting procedures of their firm must be scrutinised.