Firm fined £600k over dumper truck fatality

A construction company has been fined £600,000 after a workman was killed by a dumper truck on an Edinburgh building site.

Vincent Ramsay, 55, was hit by the truck at the bottom of a dirt ramp leading into an underground car park on December 5, 2016.

Firm fined £600k over dumper truck fatality

The father of four had been crouching to respray a marker for a housing development at the former bus and tram depot at Shrubhill.



London-based Allenbuild Ltd admitted failing to organise the site so that pedestrians and vehicles could move without risk to health or safety.

Sheriff Norman McFadyen said the truck, which was carrying excavated earth, had stopped to allow other vehicles to manoeuvre.

But due to restricted visibility caused by the skip and its load, the driver then ran over Mr Ramsay when he moved off.

Sheriff McFadyen said the company should have recognised there were instances where site personnel had to access the underground car park on or near routes used by vehicles.



He said the firm should have ensured work in that area was better scheduled.

He accepted that the company had been in business for more than 70 years, had no previous convictions and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Sheriff McFadyen said the purpose of the £600,000 fine was to bring home to businesses the need to comply with health and safety legislation.

He said: “It is not to put a value on a human life and that is not what the court is doing. It is punishing the company”.



He concluded by expressing his own condolences and sympathy to Mr Ramsay’s family.

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