A north-east firm is accused of safety failings that allegedly led to an employee’s death following a tragic incident at a car dealership.
Mark Mathers got his hoodie trapped in a torsion spring during maintenance on a roller door at Specialist Cars Volkswagen on Craigshaw Crescent, Aberdeen, on September 15 2018.
The 33-year-old’s employer Patrick Forman Industrial Doors has since been charged with failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its workers including Mr Mathers.
He had been working on the servicing, repair and replacement of a door torsion spring when the deadly ordeal unfolded.
It’s claimed that the injuries he suffered resulted in him dying three days later at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Aberdeenshire company accused of failing to ensure proper health, safety and welfare of staff
The charges accuse Patrick Forman Industrial Doors – understood to be a partnership including Patrick Forman, 54, and 61-year-old Carolyn Shearer – of failing to ensure the proper health, safety and welfare of its staff.
It further alleges that the Rothienorman-based firm neglected to ensure and make sufficient assessment of the safety risks faced by its employees, such as those faced by staff when working with door torsion springs.
The company is also accused of failing to implement and maintain a safe system of work for staff while repairing and maintaining torsion springs.
It’s further alleged that Patrick Forman Industrial Doors failed to provide the necessary “information, instruction, training and supervision” to ensure the safety of its personnel when working with the door springs in question.
Court papers claim that – as a result of the alleged failings – when the spring recoiled, the firm’s employee Mark Mathers’ neck became constricted, causing such severe injury to him that it resulted in his death at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on September 18 2018.
The case against the company Patrick Forman Industrial Doors, Mr Forman and Mrs Shearer, both of Forgue Road, Rothienorman, Inverurie, will call again next month.
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