Energy / Principal contractor on Viking project to be sentenced in relation to man’s death
THE PRINCIPAL contractor on the Viking Energy wind farm will be sentenced in Lerwick next week in relation to the death of a 23-year-old working on the project in 2022.
Liam Macdonald, from Tain, died at the Viking construction site on 5 June 2022 while working for BAM Nuttall.
Macdonald was killed by the bale arm of a concrete skip, which crushed him while he was cleaning the inside of the skip.
BAM Nuttall pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by not ensuring the health, safety and welfare of its employees was protected at a hearing at Inverness Sheriff Court today (Tuesday).
The court heard the skip had been used the morning before, and was supposed to be cleaned on the same day of use.
But workers at the site had thought it was going to be used later that day, and so had not done so.
Macdonald was then asked to clean it on the morning of 5 June, with one worker at the site jokingly asking him if he was being punished by being made to do so.
He was then seen at around 9am inside the skip, chipping out the concrete with a hammer.
However workers later spotted Macdonald “motionless” inside, with the court hearing the bale arm seemed to be pinning his chest.
He was removed from the skip, but attempts to give him CPR were futile and an on-site defibrillator did not administer any charge.
Macdonald was pronounced dead, with a post-mortem examination finding the cause was “traumatic asphyxia”.
Procurator fiscal Catherine Fraser said the bale arm should have been secured in to a fixed position, and that though there was a “real risk” associated with the skip there was not a suitable system in place for cleaning it out.
However, she said BAM Nuttall had pleaded guilty at the earliest possible opportunity.
Solicitor Murdo MacLeod, defending BAM Nuttall, said this had been an “isolated incident”.
He said the company’s chief executive had written to the court to pass on his condolences to Macdonald’s family and friends.
The defence agent said BAM Nuttall took health and safety very seriously, with 30 health and safety managers and advisers in the company.
He told the court they felt this was “very much a one-off” incident, and that steps had been taken to ensure it could not happen again.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank decided not to sentence BAM Nuttall today, instead deferring sentencing for the matter to be heard at Lerwick Sheriff Court.
That case will call on 18 December at 2.15pm.
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