An international building materials company has been fined £200,000 following an incident in which a quarry worker fell into an electric fan.
The employee, who had worked at the quarry for nine years, had been asked to help a colleague with a motor on the quarry's stacker machine, which crushed limestone to make cement. The electric fan on the motor was left uncovered and the worker became entangled in it when it was switched on.
Lafarge Cement UK pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to failing to provide employees with adequate training, instruction and supervision for the task in that it was carried out without appropriate guards in place. It also admitted failing to make suitable assessment of the risks.
Sheriff Kenneth Maciver said, "This was a wholly avoidable accident, that is accepted by the company quite properly and I was impressed by the way the company have made no excuses as is regularly the case."
A health and safety inspection found that there was not a sufficient system of work in place at the time and neither of the men, nor a third man who was operating the controls of the motor during the accident had had any training in risk assessment.
