Firm fined £80k after worker’s death

The Lithuanian national was operating a JCB Loadall machine at the Alba Proteins plant at The Rack, near Dumfries, when he was found crushed under the boom arm after apparently reaching out of a window in which the glass had been missing for up to eight months.
And the sheriff at Dumfries heard that had the window been replaced at a cost of just over £300 plus VAT, the worker would not have been able to lean out and be caught.
And Sheriff Brian Mohan said the window was only one of a number of defects surrounding the JCB machine.
In court last week, the company admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act in February 2010 when employee Renatas Timofejevas, 36, was found dead in the JCB at the factory.
The company admitted failing to provide plant that was safe and without risk to health in that the JCB had numerous defects and in particular window glass missing from the boom window of the operator’s cab.
It was also admitted that there was a failure to have an adequate system in place ensuring that the JCB was adequately inspected and maintained and a failure to ensure that it was only used by trained and authorised persons.
The court heard that there were no eye witnesses to the accident.