Thames Water has been fined £100,000 for carrying out unsafe street works which forced pedestrians into the road and "could have caused a head-on collision" in south London.
TfL successfully prosecuted the company in connection with incidents on Purley Way, Croydon, Eltham Road, Greenwich, and West Hill, Wandsworth, in October and November 2019.
On West Hill, Thames Water failed to adequately sign, light and guard its work site, or provide people walking and cycling with adequate alternative routes to pass the site.
The company failed to rectify the problem when notified by TfL, resulting in the site's safety deteriorating further, causing additional danger to the public.
Similar problems were found at Eltham Road, also in October 2019, with further danger caused by a vehicle being parked across the footway.
This forced people to walk further into the road, requiring traffic to move into adjacent lanes of oncoming traffic, which "could have caused a head-on collision", TfL said.
Thames Water also failed to provide details of the exact location, dimensions and other engineering information used in the work on the Purley Way, breaching regulations and causing a "significant impact on the road network."
Glynn Barton, TfL's Director of Network Management, said: "We work hard to keep London moving and, as part of that, we need the cooperation of utility companies.
"Ensuring roadworks are safe is vital to keeping people walking, cycling and using the road network safe, which is why we prosecuted Thames Water for breaching these important safety rules.
"We are working with Thames Water and other utility companies to ensure that roadworks are carried out properly, safely and with minimal disruption to road users and the company makes significant improvements."
The prosecution was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A Thames Water spokeswoman said: “We recognise we did not meet the high standards we and our customers expect on these occasions and we’re sorry for the inconvenience this caused.
“Ensuring the health and safety of our staff, customers and the locations where we work is one of our highest priorities and it’s an area we continuously seek to improve and embed within our company.”
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