An employee of a council who suffered a serious accident at work and sustained fractures to his leg has been successful in his personal injury compensation claim.

The injured worker, who remains unnamed, was employed as a supervisor in the Grounds Maintenance Department at a local authority and was carrying out his daily duties at a council owned allotment when the accident at work occurred.

The workman and his colleagues were required to dig a trench to determine if a water pipe was in the correct location and if not they were required to lay a new one. The use of a micro digger was needed and therefore hired on the day for this purpose.

The workman needed to move the micro digger down a small path to enable it to reach where they were working. However, the micro digger fell over on some loose soil and the workman became trapped underneath it.

The workman was freed from the machine by his colleagues and was immediately taken to hospital where medical staff found that the lower part of his leg was fractured. The injured workman had to undergo surgery as a result of the accident at work following which and had to walk on crutches to enable him to get around.

During a court hearing, it was heard that although the injured workman had some experience using some diggers he did not receive any training for the use of the micro digger. The unnamed injured man received £10,000 in personal injury compensation.