27.05.2008

Loading death costs almost £500,000

Two companies involved with railway maintenance work have been fined £240,000 each after admitting health and safety failures which led to the "unnecessary" death of a worker in a loading accident with an aerial lift.

Border Rail and Plant and the aerial lift manufacturer, LH Access Technology, pleaded guilty to breaching health & Safety regulations.

Neil Martin, 46, from Essex, an employee of Border Rail, was helping load a self propelled road-rail boom lift onto a low loader at Edinburgh's Waverley Station in the early hours of March 21st 2006, when it slipped on the ramps and ran over him.

The fines were handed out at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday.
Sheriff Nigel Morrison QC said the operation to move the machinery was "not adequately planned" and had placed Martin, a service engineer, at an "unacceptable risk of serious injury" and that the loss of his life had been "unnecessary".

"The method adopted to move the machine was inherently and obviously unsafe involving, as it did, a man walking between two moving wheels," said the sheriff.

He said Martin, a service engineer, had been taking part in the overnight operation to remove the platform from the railway station in order to have it repaired by its manufacturer, LH Access.
See original report

Ambulance crews found Martin lying face down on the ground, he was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary but did not regain consciousness and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

Lawyers for the two companies, which had no previous convictions, told the court the level of the fines were high enough to force either company into administration and asked for up to 18 months to pay. Sheriff Morrison allowed them six months.

Border Rail argued that it could not have foreseen that the cherry-picker would be moved in the manner that it was, which went against normal industry practice, even though its foreman knew what was being done.

Sheriff Morrison replied that the failure to recognise the risk and to stop the operation once it was spotted as obviously unsafe, was a serious failure of duty.

He added that he did not have the power to direct the fines be put towards increasing safety in the rail industry, as Martin's family had requested. His mother Frances Martin said the size of the fine was a matter for the court, but added that she would be sorry if Border Rail went out of business as her son had enjoyed working for the company. "They were extremely good, considerate employers and they have treated us with utmost respect," she said.