Company fined after fatal warehouse roof fall

Date:

22 February 2011

Release No:

SCO/017/11

A Fife papermaking firm has been fined £260,000 after a worker fell almost 50 feet through a fragile roof to his death.

Thomas Sturrock, 32, from Methil, was working as part of a team for a contractor, cleaning the roof at Tullis Russell Papermaker Ltd's warehouse in Markinch, Fife, on 29 September 2008.

Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that Mr Sturrock's co-workers on the roof heard a cracking sound before becoming aware that Mr Sturrock had fallen through the roof. Workers in the warehouse below also heard a loud noise and saw that Mr Sturrock had fallen through the roof to the concrete floor below.

An ambulance was called and paramedics pronounced Mr Sturrock dead at the scene. A post mortem examination established that Mr Sturrock would have died immediately following the fall.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that when Tullis Russell Papermakers instructed the contractor to carry out the cleaning work, it failed to make sure the work was properly planned and organised, and when the contractor's employees were at work, they did not control, monitor and review the way the work was taking place.

The contractor had advised Tullis Russell Papermakers Limited the team would be using crawling boards on the fragile roof. However, such boards were not used and in order to carry out the cleaning work, workers accessed the roof by stepping onto it. Tullis Russell Papermakers Limited took no steps to check that crawling boards were in fact being used as agreed and failed to bring the unsafe work practices to a stop in spite of its internal procedures stating that work carried out by contractors should be monitored daily.

Tullis Russell Papermakers Ltd of Glenrothes, Fife, were fined £260,000 after pleading guilty to breaching section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The case against the contractor remains under consideration by the Health and Safety Division of Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Following the case, HSE Inspector Mac Young said:

"Thomas Sturrock might be alive today if simple safety measures had been put in place. If Tullis Russell had ensured the contractor's activities were monitored then it is possible the incident with Mr Sturrock may have been prevented.

"Tullis Russell Papermakers had a duty to ensure the safety of everyone on their site - whether working directly for them or not. Companies must make sure work contractors do for them is properly planned and organised, and monitor what actually happens when the work takes place."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. In Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has sole responsibility for the raising of criminal proceedings for breaches of health and safety legislation.
3. Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."

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