A haulage company has been fined £150,000 after a driver was electrocuted by overhead power lines.
Grant Borton, 25, an employee with Andrew Black, died while using the wash bay to clean his truck at the firm’s Drem Airfield base in East Lothian, ahead of his next shift on 31 December, 2021.
As he raised his truck’s tipper, it made contact with the power lines.
The company admitted a charge under Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday.
It was found the company failed to ensure there were suitable controls in place for work carried out near overhead power lines between 15 November, 2021 and 5 January, 2022.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Andrew Black had failed to put effective safety measures in place, which resulted in Borton’s death.
It was also found the company had not risk-assessed the hazard of overhead power lines on site.
There was a faded, illegible sign and a single A4 laminated sheet which warned of the electrical hazard. It faced in the opposite direction from the wash bay where the incident took place.
The court was told this did not meet regulatory requirements for warning sings in the workplace.
An HSE report suggested the company should have contacted ScottishPower to either have the lines buried, or put signage and road markings in place to form an exclusion zone.
Debbie Carrol, who leads on heath and safety investigations for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: “Grant Borton lost his life in circumstances which could have been avoided had the risks been recognised and simple controls put in place.
“By failing to have suitable controls in place to prevent contact with overhead power lines, Andrew Black put their employees in danger of electrocution.
“This prosecution should remind employers that failing to take reasonable health and safety measures can have fatal consequences and they will be held accountable for this failure.”
Since the incident, Andrew Black has buried all overhead power lines on the site.
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