06.08.2008

Fall from height costs £94,000

Carillion JM, of the UK, formerly known as Mowlem, was fined £70,000 plus £24,000 in costs at Maidstone Crown Court last week, after an employee fell to his death at one of the company’s sites in 2003.

The penalties followed an HSE investigation into the death of Alexander McCully, of Motherwell, Scotland, at a construction site on the Isle of Grain, in Kent, on 11th December 2003. The company had entered a guilty plea at an earlier hearing in May 2007 for breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Mr McCully had worked at the Air BP site for 14 weeks building large steel oil storage tanks. On the day of his death he was altering work platforms to allow a roof structure to be lifted into place by four cranes. Mr McCully was standing on a platform on the outside of the tank close to the top, ready to rebuild an internal scaffold platform. As he climbed onto the incomplete platform on the inside of the tank, one of the three platform boards snapped and he fell 17 metres to the floor below. He died as a result of his injuries.

HSE Inspector John Underwood said: "This was a wholly avoidable incident which led to unnecessary loss of life. I hope this case and the fine imposed will serve as a lesson to scaffold builders and the tank building industry, and will make sure others avoid a similar fate. Mr McCully was wearing a safety harness, in line with company policy, but there was no suitable anchor point for him to attach the lanyard to."

For the harnesses to be used effectively there needed to be about 50 anchor points around the rim of the storage tank. The company's procedures did not require these to be fitted prior to the crane lift starting, and this was a major weakness in its system of work. Usually in the tank building industry it is easier to use a system of dedicated harness anchors that are welded into place prior to construction.