A BUILDING firm is to be prosecuted following the death of a worker outside a Cinema .

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is taking legal action against EMC Contracts Ltd after Carl Green was struck by a reversing van in a paved area outside the Odeon Cinema on Port Way, Preston, in July 2010.

The 45-year-old painter from Steeley Lane, Chorley, had been working on a project to fit out a new Costa Coffee shop in the cinema when the incident happened.

Mr Green was walking across a pedestrian area near the front of the building when the van, driven by his work colleague Michael Hoyle, collided with him.

Four vans, including Mr Hoyle’s Citroen Relay, were in the area on the day in question.

EMC Contracts Ltd, of Faraday Court in Fulwood, has been charged with breaching Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of their employees and members of the public from the risk of being struck by reversing vehicles involved in the construction project.

At a jury inquest into Mr Green’s death in January, a verdict of accidental death was recorded.

The company is due to appear before Preston Magistrates’ Court tomorrow for the first hearing in the case.