Mold Crown Court heard that the death of 55-year-old Dewi Jones Roberts at Kronospan in Chirk could have been avoided.

The Judge, Mr Recorder Merfyn Hughes QC, said it was clear that a pre-production area where sawdust was stored had been unsafe.

Kronospan had been warned the situation was an accident waiting to happen, he said, and the measures it took following the first accident were woefully inadequate.

The court also heard there had been nothing to keep pedestrians and vehicles apart in a busy pre-production area.

Lorry driver Mr Jones Roberts, from Penycae, near Wrexham, was a sub-contractor at the site.

His lorry had been moved from where he had left it and he was walking to his vehicle when he was hit and run over by a large Komatsu 600 front-loading vehicle.

Mr Jones Roberts died instantly from his injuries.

Visibility from the loader was such that the driver did not know a collision had occurred.

The tragedy happened in July last year - just three months after an earlier accident.

On that occasion, scaffolder Frank Larty, from Liverpool, was lucky to escape serious injury when he was scooped up in an open bucket of one of the factory's the loading machines.

Loader crashed

There had also been other accidents including one where a loader crashed into a van and damaged it.

The court heard the visibility for drivers of the loading machines was restricted with a black spot in front - made worse when the bucket was loaded.

Judge Hughes said there was a chaotic state of affairs, with lorries, forklift trucks and pedestrians in the area where the Komatsu vehicles were being driven, with none having any kind of priority.

"There was absolutely no regulation at all," he said.

'Degree of complacency'

Prosecuting Huw Roberts accused Kronospan of complacency over safety, a claim rejected by Andrew Pickering, defending.

Mr Pickering said the company had spent £2m over a three-year period on safety and had immediately taken action to prevent a reoccurrence.

The company admitted two health and safety offences and in addition to the £75,000 fine were ordered to pay costs of £7,386.

HSE inspector Brian Neale said it was a terrible tragedy that should not have happened.