TWO companies have been fined a total of £400,000 for health and safety breaches that led a Glasgow labourer to fall 30ft to his death in an "entirely prevent-able" construction site accident.
James Kelly, 50, was employed by Stirling Stone Limited when he suffered fatal injuries after falling from the third level of a scaffold loading tower put up around Glasgow Academy on April 26, 2007.
Stirling Stone had been sub-contracted by the main builder, Robertson Construction Central Limited, to carry out masonry work as part of an extension to the private school in the west end of the city.
The father-of-three from Maryhill had been putting up stonework when he fell from the scaffolding platform. He was taken to the nearby Western Infirmary but on arrival was found to have died from his injuries. He left a wife, Elizabeth, now 48, and three children, 11-year-old son Craig and two daughters, Lynsey, 30, and Vivian, 26.
Yesterday, Stirling Stone Limited and Moray-based Robertson Construction Central Limited were each fined £200,000 at Glasgow Sheriff Court, both companies having been found guilty of health and safety breaches at a three-week trial in the city last month.
Yesterday’s sentence brings to an end a four-year probe into the circumstances behind Mr Kelly’s death, which saw inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) criticise his employers for having no safe system of work in place for loading materials on to the loading tower, nor any suitable assessment of the risks involved.
The investigation also revealed that the loading tower did not have sufficient guard rails and toe boards and that neither company had ensured that the tower and access scaffolding was properly inspected on a regular basis.
A single guard rail had been found on the ground close to where Mr Kelly was discovered.
John Shelton, HSE Inspector for Construction, said: “What happened to Mr Kelly was entirely preventable and would not have happened if the proper steps had been taken.
“Loading-up operations at scaffold loading towers are repeated on construction sites across Scotland probably thousands of times a day.
“There is no excuse for the contractors not to have agreed procedures as to how this work was to be done and ensured that this routine work was carried out safely.
“Where vital edge protection is removed temporarily to allow loading up to take place, steps must be taken to ensure persons cannot fall during that work.”
His comments echoed Elaine Taylor, head of the health and safety division at the Crown Office.
She said at the conclusion of last month’s trial: “James Kelly went to work and, as a result of failings by his employer and the principal contractor on site, he never returned home.
“He left a family devastated by their loss. The incident that led to Mr Kelly’s death was entirely avoidable had the two accused met their statutory health and safety obligations.”
It was the first case since the Crown Office created its Health and Safety Division in September 2009 to proceed in court by way of trial, rather than being resolved by securing early guilty pleas from the accused.
A spokesman for the main contractor said yesterday: “Robertson Construction Central Limited is extremely sorry about the death of James Kelly and accepts the sentence passed today.”
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