PRESS RELEASE: Company Fined After Death of A Worker During A Major Construction Project

A civil engineering contractor has been fined after an employee of Balfour Beatty Group Employment Limited was fatally injured when he was struck on the body by a wheeled excavator.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Limited, being a principal contractor, failed to ensure that the safe system of work for refuelling of all plant and equipment was fully implemented at the construction site of the Third Don Crossing in Aberdeen. As a consequence of that failure, th deceased, who was working at said construction site, was struck by a wheeled excavator which was slewing after being refuelled.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that refuelling of plant and equipment was identified as a high risk activity by the principal contractor who had created a task briefing document detailing a safe system of work and had risk assessed the said activity. However, it is evident that although these procedures existed in documentary format the safe system of work and its control measures had not been fully implemented at the construction site.

Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Limited of Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London has today pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and has been fined £600,000.