A SALISBURY-BASED construction company has been ordered to pay £43,715 in fines and costs after one of its employees died in an accident on a building site on the city's Churchfields industrial estate in 2003.

Castleway Developments Ltd admitted at Salisbury Crown Court on Friday to failing to ensure the safety of its employees, after 62-year-old George Rogers was killed when he was catapulted from a dumper truck, which then ran over his body.

The case was brought by the Health and Safety Executive following the fatal accident in Telford Road.

Ian Dixey, prosecuting for the executive, said the delay in bringing the matter before the court was due to a lengthy investigation by police and the executive and an inquest, which did not take place until January, 2006.

He said all employers had a duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees and the investigation had revealed a number of failings by Castleway.

He described Mr Rogers, who lived in Sunnyhill Road, Salisbury, as "the sort of man who would always help out" and do anything that needed doing.

While he had not been authorised to drive a dumper truck, late in the afternoon of April 29, 2003, Mr Rogers had helped tidy up the site before it closed for the day by driving a dumper truck filled with spoil to get rid of the load.

The truck went over a sunken trench and the jolt had thrown him out of his seat, over the front of the dumper truck's bucket and on to the ground. The truck had then driven over his body.

Mr Dixey said it was a well-known hazard with dumper trucks within the construction industry and precautions should have been taken.

He said the company's failings included inadequate training for employees on using plant and machinery, no adequate system of checking plant and machinery - three of the truck's tyres were severely under-inflated - no training verification system, no site traffic plan or control of speed on site machinery and no adequate system for controlling use of plant or machinery on site.

But, he said, since the accident, Castleway had taken steps to correct all these issues, including proper training for employees using machinery.

Fining the company £30,000 and ordering them to pay £13,714 costs, Judge Keith Cutler said the company's failings had been "contributory to a degree" to Mr Rogers' death, but were not so important as Mr Rogers' own wrongful actions in driving machinery when he should not have done so.