An electricity firm has been fined £133,000 after a worker was electrocuted on a power line.
A Crown Office health and safety expert said Gareth Aitken’s death was “foreseeable and entirely avoidable”.
Tain Sheriff Court heard on Tuesday that Mr Aitken, 26, was supervising two junior colleagues while working on the power line between Beauly and Dounreay at Contullich Woods, Alness, in the Highlands on August 2 2012.
He was using a suspended work platform to replace the cables between the pylons on the line.
He came into contact with a charged electric cable while moving the platform to a lower position on the pylon and was electrocuted.
Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission, responsible for maintaining the electricity transmission network in the north of Scotland, pleaded guilty to breaking health-and-safety legislation.
The company admitted failing to adequately ensure a safe system of work was in place, therefore exposing Mr Aitken to the risk of electrocution due to inadequate means to earth the live power line.
Gary Aitken, head of the Crown Office’s health and safety division, said: “The failing on the part of Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission to have in place an adequately specified permit to work did not provide for a safe system of work. This ultimately led to the tragic death of Gareth Aitken.
“The risk of death from this type of work was foreseeable and entirely avoidable.
“Since this incident, the company has carried out additional training in the permit-to-work process to ensure compliance with expected standards.”
A permit to work is a formal, written, safe system of work to control potentially hazardous activities.
The permit details the work to be done and the precautions to be taken.
In this case, the permit failed to specify minimum additional means and locations required to earth the power line during the works.
The permit also failed to allow access to all necessary towers to ensure adequate additional means to earth the power line were in place.