A Scottish-based specialist contractor has been fined nearly £54,000 after a worker died falling from a scissor lift in late 2022.
Steven Tervit was working at a specialist technology centre in Renfrew on 9 November 2022 when the incident happened.
He was removing wall panels from a cleanroom at the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) at Westway Business Park at a height of around 4m when the remaining panels fell and struck the platform. Tervit was thrown from the lift onto the concrete floor of the warehouse and suffered traumatic brain injury and died in hospital the following day.
The 32-year-old was employed as a labourer by Food Process Engineering and had worked for the company for approximately 15 years. The firm was subcontracted to remove the panels as part of the wider dismantling operation.
Inadequate risk management
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had failed to adequately assess and manage the risks associated with dismantling a structure it had not originally installed.
The wall panels, once the roof had been removed, had insufficient lateral support to maintain their structural stability. HSE found that the company’s risk assessment and method statement did not adequately address the risk of unplanned collapse due to structural instability. Although the company’s own method statement specified that ‘A-frame’ props or supports should be installed where necessary, no such props were present or in use on site at the time of the accident.
Food Process Engineering was fined £50,000 with a victim surcharge of £3,750 at Paisley Sheriff Court on Monday (6 July).
