A SCOTTISH haulage firm has been fined £150,000 after a lorry driver was fatally electrocuted while washing his vehicle.
Grant Borton, 25, had been finished his work on December 31, 2021, and was preparing his lorry for his next shift at Andrew Black Ltd’s Drem Airfield premises when the incident occurred.
As he left the wash bay, he raised the tipper which made contact with the overhead power lines and he was killed.
A probe by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found a failure to ensure suitable control measures were in place led to Mr Borton's death.
Andrew Black Ltd pled guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday to failing to ensure there were suitable controls in place for work carried out near dangerous overhead power lines between November 15, 2021 and January 5, 2022.
The company had not undertaken a risk assessment in respect of the hazard of overhead power lines on site and there were no suitable means to warn drivers exiting the wash bay of overhead power line.
There was a faded, illegible sign and a single A4 sized laminated sheet which did not meet with the regulatory requirements for warning signs, pointed in the opposite direction from the wash bay and would not have been visible to a driver exiting the bay.
A HSE report said the company should have contacted Scottish Power to have the lines buried or put in place signage and road markings to form an exclusion zone.
A haulage company has been fined after a 25-year-old LGV driver was fatally electrocuted. https://t.co/fshZlAx77m pic.twitter.com/ygBOLFVleY
— COPFS (@COPFS) July 4, 2023
The firm has now buried all overhead power lines at the site.
Debbie Carroll, who leads on health and safety investigations for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said: “Grant Borton lost his life in circumstances which could have been avoided had the risks been recognised and simple controls put in place.
“By failing to have suitable controls in place to prevent contact with overhead power lines Andrew Black Ltd put their employees in danger of electrocution.
“This prosecution should remind employers that failing to take reasonable health and safety measures can have fatal consequences and they will be held accountable for this failure.”
