Marlborough Highways Limited has been fined £1m after one of its employees was killed by a reversing road-sweeper.

Robert Morris, 48, was working on the resurfacing of Pemberton Road in Haringey on 30 May 2022 when he was struck by the vehicle.

A joint investigation was launched by the HSE and the Metropolitan Police.

The police submitted evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service leading to a separate prosecution, which resulted in the driver being given a suspended prison sentence.

The HSE investigation identified a number of failings. There was no segregation between people and moving vehicles on site and a banksman was not used when the road sweeper reversed and struck Morris.

The traffic management systems in place at the site were inadequate and unsafe, placing employees and members of the public at risk of serious injury and death.

Marlborough Highways Limited of Chelmsford pleaded guilty to safety breaches at City of London Magistrates’ Court and was fined £1m, with full costs awarded in the sum of £6,028.

In the separate CPS case, Jamie Smith, who was also an employee of the company, was prosecuted for an offence of causing death by careless driving.

He pleaded guilty and in February 2024, at Wood Green Crown Court, he was sentenced to a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years, and disqualified from driving for one year.

HSE principal inspector James Goldfinch said: “Our thoughts are with Robert’s family, described by his widow as ‘the centre of our world’. She says his children are ‘sad and angry and cheated of so much of their future’.

“Robert was entitled to return home safely from work to his family but the lack of segregation of vehicles and pedestrians by Marlborough Highways Limited meant he did not.

“This was a case where appropriate controls had been identified but were not being implemented on site.”