Company not liable for death of worker during Storm Eunice

Jack Bristow, 23, from Sutton Courtenay, died after a tree fell on his truck while he was working in Hampshire.

He suffered a catastrophic head injury and was pronounced dead at the scene. He left behind his son, Harvey, who was one at the time.

Mr Bristow and driver Callum Smith had left Hooke Highways Limited’s Watlington depot at about 7.55am to remove traffic management equipment across the South East that could have been blown away in severe winds.

Jack Bristow , 23, died working in Storm Eunice in 2022 (Image: Unknown)

They were travelling back to Oxfordshire on Old Odiham Road when the accident happened at about 11.43am.

His parents, Teresa White and Gary Bristow, brought a claim against the company, arguing it had breached its duty of care by sending him to work during a Met Office Red Warning for extremely strong winds.

However, Judge Irena Sabic KC dismissed the claim, saying the risk of death while travelling as part of the assignment “was not reasonably foreseeable”.

She warned against “setting a novel standard of care” by which negligence could be established against an employer.

In her judgment, she said: “My view is that the precautions that the Claimants say should reasonably have been taken are not practicable or realistic. The risk of this horrific accident occurring was simply not foreseeable.”

Expressing sympathy for Mr Bristow’s relatives, the judge said he had been described as “hard working, caring, witty and completely devoted to his son”.

The family’s separate claim against landowner Davis Meisels, from whose land the tree fell, will be determined in due course.