The mother of a young man crushed to death in a work accident said her son was “full of hopes and dreams” and her family had been “deprived” of sharing those with him.
Laborer Liam MacDonald, 23, was using a hammer to shred dried concrete from a skip at the Shetland Islands wind farm site when his bale arm fell on him, trapping his chest.
Main contractor BAM Nuttall has been fined a total of £860,000 after admitting health and safety breaches.
Mr MacDonald’s mother, Wendy Robson, said: “Liam loved life, his family and his friends. He was only at the beginning of his adult life, still finding who he was and full of hopes and dreams.
“We were robbed of the opportunity to have Liam here today, and in all our tomorrows, and to share these dreams with him. We will never meet the children he so desperately wanted to have one day.
“We cannot adequately describe who Liam was and what he meant to us. We love and miss him beyond words.
The dumpster. Photo: HSE
The incident occurred at the Viking Energy wind farm in Haute Kergord on the morning of June 5, 2022.
Mr MacDonald, originally from Tain in the Scottish Highlands, was a temporary employee who had been working at the site for more than a month.
Colleagues performed CPR and administered a defibrillator, but Mr MacDonald was pronounced dead at the scene.
A court heard the ball arm weighed 80kg.
The Viking Energy wind farm site. Photo: HSE
Jackie Randell, a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, concluded that BAM Nuttall had failed to identify fall hazards and had failed to put in place a safe system of work to ensure that anyone using, maintaining or cleaning the dumpster would be protected. evil.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety rules at Inverness Sheriff Court earlier this month.
At Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday, the company was fined £800,000 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £60,000.
Sheriff Ian Hay Cruickshank reduced the fine by £1.2 million due to the timing of BAM Nuttall’s plea.
The sheriff said: “It is necessary for me to impose a financial penalty which sends the message that businesses must do everything in their power to ensure safe working practices.
“This is not just the responsibility of those who run a business. This obligation extends to others, including shareholders.
Photo: HSE
Sheriff Cruickshank said Mr MacDonald was asked to carry out a task he had never done before, adding: “He was given no guidance or instructions.
“He was unsupervised and was sent alone to the dumpster without any supervision just before he began his task on the ball arm safety.”
The sheriff admitted that the fatal accident “occurred as a result of an oversight.”
He noted how BAM Nuttall has since revised its procedures and implemented new measures to improve workplace safety.
The sheriff added: “I accept that their introduction would significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the recurrence of a similar incident. »
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Debbie Carroll, head of health and safety investigations at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said Mr MacDonald’s death “could have been avoided” if the risks of maintaining and cleaning the skip had been “appropriate and sufficiently evaluated”.
Ms Carroll added: “Their failure to identify the dangers posed by the skip ball arm and ensure it was secure before the clean-up operation began led to Mr MacDonald’s death. »
BAM Nuttall offered his “sincere condolences” to Mr MacDonald’s family and apologized for the circumstances which led to his death.
A spokesperson for the firm added: “We strive every day to ensure all our staff work in a safe environment and we deeply regret letting go of Liam in June 2022.
“Safety is our priority and we constantly review our procedures and make continuous improvements.
“Immediately following Liam’s death, we took steps to ensure this incident did not happen again, and we will continue to build on this knowledge in the future. »