Company and sole trader fined £37,500 after steel beam falls from vehicle and fatally injures the driver - 11 May 2007

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has today warned road haulage and steel fabrication companies of the importance of having properly secured heavy loads, following the death of a driver in Leith.

Steel fabrication company, McDonald and Ross Ltd, and a road haulage sole trader, Ron Boyd Trading, were today fined a total of £37,500 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Mr Nicholas McKellar age 45, died after a steel beam weighing almost 1000kg fell from a vehicle as it was being unloaded, on 10 October 2005.

McDonald and Ross Ltd of Mayfield Industrial Estate, Dalkeith were fined £30,000; having pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSW Act), and Ron Boyd Trading, also of Mayfield Industrial Estate, was fined £7,500 after pleading guilty to a breach of Section 2(1) of HSW Act..

HSE Inspector Isabelle Martin commented after the case:

‘It is entirely foreseeable that a load on a vehicle will move during transit on the road. It is therefore important that the load is placed onto the vehicle in its most stable orientation and that appropriate measures are taken to ensure that it cannot fall from the vehicle at any time. It is also important that the stability of the load is assessed prior to beginning to unload it.

“This incident could, therefore, easily have been prevented. The beam that fell from the vehicle was one of three identical beams placed on the vehicle. Each of these beams could have been placed on their side therefore making it very unlikely that they could fall.”

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