ONE of Canterbury's best known companies was today fined £15,000 for a health and safety failure which resulted in a worker being seriously injured.

John Parker and Sons admitted the breach at Canterbury Magistrates' Court. The firm was also ordered to pay £3,047 prosecution costs.

The court heard how a car driven by an employee drove into a steel girder which was overhanging from the back of a low loader and smashed through the windscreen.

Stephen Thomas, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said the loader was travelling along the Vauxhall Estate Road to another part of the Parkersteel site when the accident happened last November.

He said it was the company's failure to recognise the risk of the unlit girder on a public road and the subsequent accident which had resulted in the prosecution.

Allen Green and Jamie Evans, who were leaving the site during a break in their night shift, were both hurt. Mr Evans was the more seriously injured. He suffered a broken collar bone and several smashed teeth.

Peter Hawks, for John Parker and Son, said the company had a long and unblemished health and safety record and took safety issues very seriously.

He said that new procedures and measures were quickly introduced to prevent a reoccurrence of a similar incident.