British Street Light Worker Fined for Toddler Injury

A British toddler was injured when part of a streetlight was dropped by a workman in Hackney as she was passing underneath, a court has heard.

According to a report from The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), one-year-old Taahyra Kasham was being pushed along a London street in her pram by her mum, Rajna, when a reflector from a streetlight hit her on the head.

Street light operative Joseph Parker, 25, who at the time of the incident lived in Romford, Essex, was fined after HSE found he had not erected temporary barriers around the lamp while he was working.

City of London Magistrates Court heard Parker was instructed by his employers, Volker Highways Limited, to investigate a faulty street lamp on Gillett Square in Hackney on Jan. 20, 2010.

However, when he detached the reflector at the top of the lamp post it fell toward the mother and daughter below. The one-year-old needed stitches to her wound, but her mum escaped unhurt.

The HSE investigation found the incident was entirely preventable. Temporary barriers should have been used to segregate pedestrians from the work area around the lamp before Mr. Parker dismantled the reflector.

Parker, who at the time of the incident lived in Boxmoor Road, Romford, Essex, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He was fined $3,539.48 and ordered to pay costs of $4,545.13