Firm fined GBP 400,000 for collision accident
August 26, 2008
A quarrying firm is being fined £400,000 after an accident in which two employees have died.
Scottish Coal pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which led to the deaths of Brian French and Colin Ferguson.
Both workers were killed when their Land Rover was crushed by a truck with an impaired visual field.
The company already knew about this issue as a similar accident had previously occurred, the Firm magazine reports.
Sheriff John Montgomery says the firm was guilty of: "[A] failure to provide the operators of all mobile plant with suitable means of communication or other equipment to reduce the risk of collision and injury."
A Health and Safety Executive inspector, Norrie Buchanan, talking to the BBC, claims these deaths were preventable.
He believes control measures such as a camera on the trucks can reduce visual field impairment.
The organisation's Hard Target Initiative in 2000 has reduced quarrying accidents by 55 per cent.
Scottish Coal pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which led to the deaths of Brian French and Colin Ferguson.
Both workers were killed when their Land Rover was crushed by a truck with an impaired visual field.
The company already knew about this issue as a similar accident had previously occurred, the Firm magazine reports.
Sheriff John Montgomery says the firm was guilty of: "[A] failure to provide the operators of all mobile plant with suitable means of communication or other equipment to reduce the risk of collision and injury."
A Health and Safety Executive inspector, Norrie Buchanan, talking to the BBC, claims these deaths were preventable.
He believes control measures such as a camera on the trucks can reduce visual field impairment.
The organisation's Hard Target Initiative in 2000 has reduced quarrying accidents by 55 per cent.
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