AN engineering company issued a sincere apology last night after being fined £8,000 for an accident which resulted in a lorry driver becoming impaled on a steel pole.

The moment Jason Ripley came within inches of death is captured in this dramatic picture, which shows the attempts of emergency workers to free him from the six-metre pole, which penetrated his chest.

Mr Ripley, now 42, was left with a 24in scar and lost a rib in the accident, after the pole smashed through his windscreen and into the right side of his chest, grazing his lung, as he drove into the grounds of Henry Williams Group to deliver timber on August 19, 2008. After being cut free by firefighters, he was airlifted to hospital with part of the barrier still embedded in his chest.

In an interview with The Northern Echo after the accident, he said: “I thought it was just digging into my flesh.

When I looked down I realised it had gone straight through and I was very shocked.

“It could have been the adrenaline, but I managed to stay calm. I was just staring up at the sky, thinking that’s it, I’m going to die.”

Despite his ordeal, Mr Ripley, of Darlington, was back at work only ten weeks later and made a full recovery.

Henry Williams Group, based in Dodsworth Street, Darlington, yesterday admitted a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,424 by Darlington Magistrates’ Court. Mr Ripley did not attend the court. A civil claim for compensation was settled at an earlier hearing.

After the hearing Henry Williams Group expressed its “sincere regret” for the accident and said staff were pleased to hear of Mr Ripley’s speedy recovery.

John Wills, a Health and Safety Executive inspector, told magistrates that the pole formed a horizontal swinging barrier and had been left open by a Henry Williams Group employee to allow Mr Ripley access to the unloading point.

However, the barrier could not be secured in the open position and had partially swung back into the carriageway, obscured from view by the surrounding foliage.

The bar hit the bonnet of Mr Ripley’s flat bed truck, breaking through the windscreen and impaling him through the chest. He remained concious long enough to call his disbelieving colleagues to tell them what had happened, who, in turn, called the emergency services.

Speaking after the hearing Mr Wills said: “When I first saw the pictures of the rescue and saw how horrific they were, it makes you ask how could someone survive an accident like that?

“One of the first things the company did was to remove the barrier and improve a number of transport-related work practices on their site.”

In a statement, a Henry Williams Group spokesman said: “At the time of this incident, Henry Williams Group had both a responsible attitude to health and safety and a blemish-free health and safety record.

“Reflecting that responsible attitude to health and safety, which we continue to have, Henry Williams Group actively took all necessary steps to ensure that a similar incident could not happen again.”