The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned about the dangers of working close to overhead power lines, after a Perthshire soft fruit farming company and its owner were prosecuted following the electrocution of a Polish worker.

Mr Gerard Faltynowski, 26, died on 28 July 2006 after metal extension poles he was using to construct the steel frame of a polytunnel came into contact with an 11,000 volt overhead electricity power line on farm land near Blairgowrie.

At Perth Sheriff Court yesterday, employer Thomas Thomson (Blairgowrie) Ltd, Bramblebank Works, Blairgowrie, and managing director Thomas Peter Mackie Thomson were fined a total of £10,800 after pleading guilty to breaches of health and safety law.

On the day of the fatality, a team of employees, including Mr Faltynowski and 11 other migrant workers, were working in a field, starting to erect the steel frame of a polytunnel across which ran three overhead power lines carrying 11,000 volts of electricity.

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Short metal pieces measuring approximately 0.5m, were to be attached to each end of the metal hoops from which the tunnel was being constructed.

Mr Faltynowski needed to bring a number of the extension pieces up the field and he slotted 13 together and carried them vertically. The topmost extension piece touched the overhead power lines and Mr Faltynowski was electrocuted.

Following the fatal incident, HSE issued a Prohibition Notice to stop work being carried out so close to low overhead power lines.

HSE Inspector Lawrence Murray said: "Mr Faltynowski's tragic death was entirely preventable and arose from clear failures to assess and manage the risk of working close to or under overhead power lines. A suitable and sufficient risk assessment would have identified the danger and the necessary control measures, and a safe system of work would have ensured the safety of the employees."

Despite receiving a warning from an electricity linesman who witnessed work being carried out under the lines just days before, the construction of the polytunnel's metal frames continued.

"Work which risks contact with overhead power lines should not take place within nine metres either side of a live power line," he said.

On average in the UK, approximately 60% of electrical fatalities at work are caused by inadvertent contact with overhead power lines; this equates to 10-15 deaths per year.

(GK/JM)