A civil engineering firm has been fined £200,000 after one of its workers was killed on a repair job.

The incident happened in April 2010 at the Annick Water Viaduct in Ayrshire, Scotland. Glasgow-based SW Global Resourcing Limited has pleaded guilty to the safety charges.

Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard how between March and April 2010, employees of the firm were working to cap and grout strengthening rods which had been inserted across the arches of the viaduct.

This involved work at height using mobile elevated work platforms (MEWPs), positioned on concrete plinths, which had been built to create level working surfaces. The plinths were built on sloping ground with the front ends of some said to have been "significantly higher" than the immediately adjacent ground. However, none of the plinths were built with any end stops or edge protection.

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Leslie Watson was working from a basket of a MEWP on 13 April 2010, at a height of around 13 metres, when the incident occurred. The plinth that the MEWP was positioned on had been constructed with no end stop or edge protection. It drove off the edge of the concrete plinth and overturned, throwing Mr Watson from its basket. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) found that no suitable and sufficient risk assessment had been carried out for the task, and the system of work was unsafe. They added that the accident could have been avoided if precautions, such as edge protection, had been taken.

(JP/CD)