Crush death firm fined

The firm admitted breaching safety laws

An engineering firm has been fined £30,000 after a man was crushed to death by a barrel crammed with nuts and bolts.

Thomas Henderson, 46, had been guiding the container - which weighed more than 250 kilos - when it apparently slipped from its slings, crushing his chest and fracturing his skull.

Mr Henderson, from Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland, had been working for McLean and Gibson (Engineers) Ltd who were contracted to dismantle the St Regis paper mill at Silverton, Devon in July 2000.

The firm, of Glenrothes, Fife, was fined at Exeter Crown Court after pleading guilty earlier to a charge under the health and safety laws. Costs of £3,960 were also ordered to be paid.

The court heard Mr Henderson was the charge hand of a three-man team loading parts of dismantled machinery and piping into a container on the back of a flat bed lorry.

Neither the barrel he selected nor the slings used, taken from a scrap pile, were adequate for the job, the court was told.

Judge Jeremy Griggs said precisely what caused the lift to fail was not apparent, but it seemed likely the barrel's sides had become deformed by the weight of and nuts and bolts, and it fell.

Mr Henderson's death was the result of inadequate procedures, which had been improved since the accident, added the judge.