A fruit grower who took no action over a faulty cable which electrocuted a berry picker and killed him has been fined.
Grower Peter Thomson was fined £1,800 by Perth Sheriff Court after Polish worker Gerard Faltynowski died when he struck the overhead cable with part of a polytunnel, creating an 11,000 volt shock at Mains Field, Blairgowrie.
The company, Thomas Thomson (Blairgowrie), was fined £9,000 over the incident which followed a warning about the danger two weeks before the accident at the peak of the strawberry season between July 1 and July 28, 2006.
The company admitted failing to provide a safe system of work whereby the migrant worker was killed at the hearing.
The court heard that a colleague started to shout a warning to Faltynowski, but saw a blue flash before the man, working his third summer at the farm, fell to the ground.
A Scottish Hydro Electric (SHE) employee had warned Thomson over the dangers after seeing workers putting the polytunnels up near the overhead lines and the grower told SHE that he had informed his staff of the hazard.
A safe corridor should have been set up either side of the power cables, according to health and safety officers who assessed the work practices at the farm.
The court heard that if the correct minimum procedures had been implemented the Polish student would not have perished.
The company accepted they failed to take precautionary measures of having safe zones extending to nine metres either side of the overhead power lines.
No comments yet