A FORESTRY worker has been left paralysed from the stomach down after a tree landed on him. 

A 69ft (21m) ash tree fell on the 61-year-old man (then 58) when it was cut incorrectly during ash dieback clearance on a Wiltshire estate. 

He suffered eight broken ribs, a broken pelvis, two broken ankles, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding, spending four months in hospital and being placed in an induced coma.

The contractor responsible for the injury - suffered in January 2022 - has now been fined following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). 

Gerald Hayward, trading as G H Hayward Forestry Contractors, had been making a back cut to the tree in Salisbury's Fonthill Estate when it fell in the wrong direction. The HSE found he had "failed to implement a safe working zone around the tree as it was being felled".

Such a zone is usually twice the size of the tree, and only the felling operator is permitted inside it.

Mr Hayward pleaded guilty at Salisbury Magistrates' Court to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.

The injured worker, from Frome in Somerset, was standing in a nearby bridle path.

HSE inspector James Hole said: “This was a serious incident that has led to an individual sustaining life-changing injuries meaning he is now unable to work and requires lifelong care.

“Mr Hayward failed to create a safe working zone around the tree while it was being cut down – this is a standard working practice for tree felling in woodland.

“He failed to implement the correct control measures and a safe system of work. Had Mr Hayward done this then this incident would have been prevented and the individual would not be paralysed and facing the rest of his life without the use of his legs.”