My Occupation was a heavy plant operator I first started out in this line of work around late 1989 and worked for various companies and worked on various contracts ranging from earth moving,pipe lines,quarries,general plant hire and the demolition sector for a while etc.And i operated various types of machines ranging from Excavators,Dozers,Track Loaders,and Rigid Dump trucks to articulated Dump trucks.
My last employer i stated working for just before i had my accident was gary hather plant hire based at mosborough street rotherham south yorkshire around november 1989 and was employed as a 360 degree Excavator driver.
On the 17th january 1990 i was asked by a colleague by the name of stephen derbyshire to go and assist him with a hydraulic repair on a j.c.b 3cx sitemaster that had broken down on a construction site in sheffield. After the hydraulic repair had been done and the oil had been replaced he then told the driver that we would fill up the with diesel fuel at the same time. The j.c.b driver moved the machine over to the access road on the site where the pick up truck was parked,there is a tank of fuel on the back of the pick up truck and the fuel had to be pumped by hand to the fillerneck on the j.c.b this was accordingly a two man job as another person needs to hold the fuel hose in position of the filler neck of the j.c.b which was a 90 degree unrestricted flow elbow design the j.c.b is very shallow in depth 75mm = 3" The position of the fuel tank on this particular model of j.c.b 3cx sitemaster was in the bulkhead of the machine positioned directly in front of the j.cb. the driver who had clear good all round vision to the left and right of the machine and to the front from the drivers seat. Due to the position of the fuel tank and filler neck you have to climb up onto the side of the j.c.b to get access to the filler cap to enable you to the job properly which i did on that day.You have to stand in a awkward position with your right foot on the access step into the cab and your left foot posistioned on the main frame of the j.c.b and lean forwards to the the filler cap.. The two hydraulic cylinders of the front bucket rest horizontal along the main frame of the j.c.b while i was in that position mentioned above and the fuel was been pumped by stephen derbyshire from the tank on the back of the pick up truck the driver of the j.c.b suddenly without warning operated the controls by lowering the front bucket and crushed my left foot and ankle above the steel toe capped boots i was wearing. I screamed out and he failed to raise the front bucket and kept on crushing my foot until my screams were finally heard,he then released the front loader arm to free my foot. I then fell of the side of the j.cb. collapsing onto the road,the two of them didn't take it very seriously what had happened,they failed to report the accident to the site manager or forman or even call for a ambulance to get me medical assistancei then struggled to get onto the pick up truck and then stephen derbyshire took me back to the yard and reported the accident to gary hathers girlefriend .He was gone for ages and it seemed like forever as i was then going into shock,he then came back from the office and took me to rotherham district hospital,he then half carried me into casualty and left me with the staff and i just passed out and came around a while later with the doctors and nurses around me and i temporally lost my sight and passed out again.it took up to 2hrs approximatley to get me to hospital from the time the accident happened