A Lewis building firm has been fined £40,000 after admitting health and safety breaches that contributed to the death of a retired vicar as he holidayed in the Hebrides.
Philip Walker, 72, died after he was struck by a loose scaffolding board as he drove his campervan on the A858 near Kirivick.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that the method used to secure the load was deemed “wholly inadequate and unsuitable” by an industry expert.
The driver of the vehicle – Donald Maclean – had previously admitted causing death by careless driving by failing to make effective use of his driver’s side wing mirror.
But prosecutors decided to also bring a case against Lewis Builders Ltd, the operators of Maclean’s pickup truck.
During a hearing at Inverness Sheriff Court, the company pled guilty to a single charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act – which detailed a risk assessment failure, as well as failures to provide and maintain a system of work, or information, instruction and training to employees, in relation to the proper securing of items for transport.
Fiscal depute Gavin Callahan told the hearing that on September 11 2019, a worker from the company had secured the scaffolding boards with rope, using loops and knots secured to hooks that ran the length of the truck.
“He tied the rope and could not move the boards as they were so tightly secured,” Mr Callahan said.
Witness took evasive action
However, as the vehicle moved one of the boards came loose and was protruding almost a metre from the truck – causing a witness who passed the van before the incident to take evasive action to avoid being hit.
Further down the road, the pickup met Mr Walker’s campervan, with tragic consequences.
“The two vehicles passed one another. The protruding end of the scaffolding board collided with the driver’s side window of the campervan,” Mr Callahan told Sheriff Gary Aitken.
“The board was then pushed backward until its other end became lodged against the company’s truck […]
“As the vehicles continued to pass, the other end of the board entered the campervan, where it struck Mr Walker on the back of his head and right shoulder.”
Investigators concluded that the campervan driver would have had only a single second to identify the hazard and “it would not have been possible for Mr Walker to have reacted in any way to avoid the collision”.
Mr Walker’s wife, who was travelling in the passenger seat of the campervan, sought help and called 999.
‘Untreatable’ head injuries
He was airlifted to Western Isles Hospital, where the head injury was determined to be “untreatable”. He died in the early hours of the following morning.
In the aftermath of the incident a specialist in road haulage safety concluded the method used to secure the “high-risk” load was “wholly inadequate and unsuitable”.
She noted that the company was operating a “fundamentally flawed system”, which did not comply with DVSA guidance at the time of the incident.
She said: “I believe that the load movement was both foreseeable and entirely preventable.”
The court heard that pickup truck Donald Maclean had been banned from the roads for four years and received 200 hours of unpaid work as a result of his previous guilty plea.
Advocate Cat MacQueen, for Lewis Builders Ltd, said she wished to reiterate the company’s “deepest sympathy to Mr Walker’s family and friends”.
She noted that one of the company directors had travelled to be present in the courtroom for the hearing and told Sheriff Aitken the fatal incident represented “a matter of deep and ongoing regret to those responsible”.
She said her client was “fully committed to matters of health and safety”.
Ms MacQueen said that the method used to secure the board was common practice employed by the company at the time and had been understood to be “the safest way to secure these types of loads”.
“It is now understood that the method did not reflect the latest and best practice at the time,” she said, before detailing a number of actions the company had taken in the wake of the tragedy.
‘Effective and robust procedures’
The advocate said the steps had been taken “to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again”.
Sheriff Aitken said: “This is a dreadful set of circumstances and I well remember it from the previous case that I dealt with. I can only imagine the impact that this had had on Mr Walker’s family and no doubt the ongoing impact.
“The case also goes to reinforce that it can be relatively little things in the great scheme of things that have dreadful consequences.
“I see no sign of malice or cost-cutting on behalf of the company, but they didn’t keep themselves up to date with the best practice in the industry.”
Recognising the “appalling consequences” of the company’s actions, Sheriff Aitken handed down a fine of £40,000 and expressed his sympathies to Mr Walker’s family – some of who had joined the hearing via videolink.