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Six figure settlement agreed after man loses arm in Bury piling hammer accident |
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22 August 2007 |
A man whose arm was cut off while he was operating a pile driver on a Bury building site has agreed a six figure settlement in his legal action against his former employers.
In February 2005 Bryan Banham (31) of Watton in Norfolk was working for a piling company, helping to rebuild the Premier Foods factory in Bury St Edmunds after it had burned down the previous year.
A man whose arm was cut off while he was operating a pile driver on a Bury building site has agreed a six figure settlement in his legal action against his former employers.
In February 2005 Bryan Banham (31) of Watton in Norfolk was working for a piling company, helping to rebuild the Premier Foods factory in Bury St Edmunds after it had burned down the previous year. He was working with a colleague to drive in a pile when a weld snapped and the hole began to fill with water.
It was essential to stem the flow of water by pouring in cement, but it was while Mr Banham was doing so that the two tonne hammer suddenly fell and severed his left hand.
Emergency services were called and firefighters spent two hours trying to retrieve the limb, but without success. Meanwhile Mr Banham had been taken to West Suffolk hospital for emergency surgery, and the next day he was transferred to the Norfolk and Norwich hospital where he remained for eleven days because of complications sustained in the wound.
It was later revealed that the machine had no safety catch to prevent the hammer falling if the 'free fall' lever had been accidentally pushed.
Mr Banham's claim was against his employers, Van Elle. The settlement was negotiated by Ruth Booy, a personal injury specialist with Kester Cunningham John.
'Mr Banham is still in constant pain from the injury,' she says. 'He had a very physical job and an active social life, and has lost both. He was also accomplished at building and DIY and he enjoyed cooking. None of these things are open to him now.
'The loss of a limb in such horrific circumstances and then the loss of much of his lifestyle has come as a tremendous blow from which he is still struggling to recover. Fortunately the money from this settlement will pay for much needed rehabilitation. It will also pay for an appropriate prosthesis, since Mr Banham has had great difficulty in finding a fitting which he can use and which doesn't case him pain.
'It is tragic that such a debilitating injury should occur to such a young man, and we can only hope that the settlement goes some way towards helping him build a new life for himself and his family.'
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