A CONSTUCTION firm has been fined more than £800,000 after the death of a 23-year-old man in Shetland.
Liam MacDonald, from Tain, died on June 5, 2022 following an accident while working for BAM Nuttall.
A bale arm of a skip crushed him while he was cleaning concrete off the inside of the machine on the site.
BAM Nuttall was fined £800,000, plus a £60,000 victim surcharge at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said the fine had to send a message that businesses should do all in their power to ensure safe working environments and practices for staff.
He said that it was a duty for both managers and shareholders to be aware of.
The sheriff noted Macdonald was doing a job he had not done before, and added: "He was not accompanied to the skip, was unsupervised and was not provided with further instruction."
The firm apologised for the circumstances leading to MacDonald’s death and offered its “sincere condolences” to his family.
“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.
“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.
“We are committed to the health and safety of everyone who is impacted by our work, and we will continue to make that our prime consideration in everything that we do.”
