Hamilton Sheriff Court docket heard that on 4th September 2024, Steven White, 61, was once offloading granite slabs from a lorry loader at Blyth Marble’s premises in Carlisle Highway, Larkhall. White was once operating on best of the flatbed phase of the lorry when two granite slabs, with a blended weight of extra 900 kg, fell and struck him, inflicting deadly accidents.
An investigation by means of the Well being & Protection Government (HSE) discovered that vertical protection posts, which offer a bodily barrier to forestall slabs from toppling, have been got rid of all the way through the offloading operation. Whilst it was once permitted customized and observe for the posts to stay fitted all the way through offloading it was once no longer specified within the corporate’s protected operating guide.
The investigation additionally discovered that whilst lifting two slabs without delay was once common observe, the corporate’s Secure Device of Paintings failed to tell apart between unmarried slab lifting and more than one slab lifting and lacked particular directions for dealing with more than one slabs. Moreover, White was once operating by myself at the lorry loader, while the Secure Device of Paintings specified that two other folks at all times will have to be inquisitive about offloading operations.
Blyth Marble Restricted, of Carlton Commercial Property, Carlton In Lindrick, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, pleaded accountable to breaching Segment 2(1) of the Well being and Protection at Paintings and so on. Act 1974. The corporate was once fined £50,000 with a sufferer surcharge of £3,750 at Hamilton Sheriff Court docket on 28th January 2026.
HSE foremost inspector Martin McMahon mentioned after the listening to: “This was once a sad incident which will have been averted had the corporate made positive the suitable protection measures have been in position and adopted all the way through offloading operations.
“Employers will have to make sure that protected techniques of labor aren’t best in position however are sufficiently detailed to deal with all foreseeable dangers, together with the requirement for protection apparatus to stay in place and for good enough team of workers to be provide all the way through hazardous operations.”
Were given a tale? E mail information@theconstructionindex.co.united kingdom
