Family Reacts After Company Fined Over Fatal Crushing Incident

The mother of a man who died after being crushed in a workplace incident stated that her family has been deprived of the opportunity to share his aspirations and future plans. Liam Macdonald, 23, a resident of the Highlands, was engaged in removing hardened concrete from a skip when a substantial piece of equipment fatally crushed him at a Shetland wind farm location. His employer, the civil engineering company BAM Nuttall, received a fine of £860,000 subsequent to its admission of violating safety regulations. Wendy Robson, Mr Macdonald’s mother, commented: “Liam loved life, his family and friends. He was just at the start of his adult life, still finding who he was, and full of hopes and dreams.” Emergency responders were summoned to the Viking Energy wind farm sites situated at Upper Kergord, approximately 15 miles (24km) north of Lerwick, around 10:15 on Sunday 5 June 2022. BAM Nuttall entered a guilty plea to charges of breaching health and safety regulations at Inverness Sheriff Court earlier in the current month. The company was subsequently fined at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday. In a released statement, Ms Robson declared: “We have been robbed of having Liam here today, and in all our tomorrows, and in sharing those dreams with him. We will never meet the children he so wanted to have one day.” She added: “We can’t adequately describe who Liam was, and what he means to us. We love and miss him beyond words.” Mr Macdonald was employing a hammer to dislodge fragments of solidified concrete when the equipment component, known as a bale arm, descended. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reported that its inquiry determined BAM Nuttall, serving as the primary contractor at the location, had not identified the hazards associated with the bale arm’s potential fall. The HSE further stated that the company neglected to implement a secure work system to guarantee the protection from injury for any individual operating, maintaining, or cleaning the skip. The penalty imposed on BAM Nuttall was decreased from £1.2m, a reduction attributed to the timing of the company’s guilty plea. Sheriff Ian Cruickshank commented that the fine would convey a clear message that corporations are obligated to exert every effort to guarantee secure working conditions. He further stated that this responsibility extended beyond the management of a significant company such as BAM Nuttall, encompassing its shareholders as well. The sheriff noted that Mr Macdonald was performing a task he had not previously undertaken, remarking: “He was not accompanied to the skip, was unsupervised and was not provided with further instruction.” BAM Nuttall indicated that it had issued an apology to Mr Macdonald’s family and extended its heartfelt condolences. Proceedings at Inverness Sheriff Court revealed that Mr Macdonald had been instructed to clean the skip on the morning of the incident, but soon after, workers observed him “motionless” inside, with the bale arm pressing against his chest. Efforts to revive him proved futile, and an available on-site defibrillator failed to deliver any electrical charge. Procurator fiscal Catherine Fraser asserted that the bale arm ought to have been secured in a stationary position. She added that despite the presence of a “real risk” linked to the skip, an appropriate system for its cleaning was not established. Representing BAM Nuttall, solicitor Murdo Macleod characterized the event as “very much a one-off” incident and stated that measures had been implemented to prevent its recurrence. Outside the courtroom, a spokesperson for the company remarked: “We strive every day to ensure that all our staff work in a safe environment and we deeply regret that we failed Liam in June 2022.” The spokesperson continued: “Safety is our priority and we are always reviewing our procedures and making continuous improvements. “Immediately after Liam’s death we took steps to ensure that this incident would not be repeated, and we will continue to build on this learning going forward. “We have made improvements to our processes, our safe systems of work and the equipment we use on all of our sites and reviewed our training to ensure that staff are aware of the risks involved in their work.” Jackie Randell, from HSE, commented: “This was a tragic incident which led to the death of a young man. “Our thoughts remain with Mr MacDonald’s friends and family at this time.” Debbie Carroll, representing the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, further stated: “The death of Liam MacDonald could have been prevented if BAM Nuttall Limited had suitably and sufficiently assessed the risks involved in the maintenance and cleaning of the concrete column skip at the site.”