A FATHER of two working on the Tay Rail Bridge died due to a string of health and safety failings by his employers, a court heard.
David Rodger died after being exposed to toxic vapours during repainting work within a pier leg of the rail bridge in January 2010.
His employers were fined £200,000 after admitting failing to identify the area being worked in by Mr Rodger as a confined space.
The 44-year-old, from Cowdenbeath, was carrying out blasting work with colleagues before starting painting at 2.30am.
Depute fiscal Gavin Callaghan told the court: “There was only one spray gun, so the men took turns to spray their areas.
“Mr Rodger waited inside the pier leg and told his colleague to return to the bothy. Another colleague waited in the paint shed monitoring the pumps.
“He assumed painting had finished around 4am when the demand for paint stopped. He checked the bothy and found other workers there and they noted Mr Rodger’s absence, but were not concerned as he was known to go to a different bothy to attend to paperwork.
“Shortly before 6am they tried to trace him. They discovered he was not in the adjacent bothy and tried unsuccessfully to contact him by mobile phone.
“They went to the encapsulation around pier 44 and climbed down to the lower levels where they saw a pair of boots protruding from a pile of grit.
“They found him lying face down in the grit with the spray gun lying beside him.”
Xervon Palmers Ltd, who are based in Kent and were known at the time as ThyssenKrupp Palmers Limited, admitted a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act, between May 1 2009 and January 28 2010 at the Tay Rail Bridge.
Peter Gray QC, defending, said: “It is entirely accepted this was a fundamental failure and it went to a senior level.
“It wasn’t an issue that had been disregarded — quite the opposite. There had been careful consideration and discussion involving a number of people with health and safety experience who ultimately made an error.
“That is of profound regret and the company wish me to make known their most sincere sympathies to the family of Mr Rodger.”
Sheriff Lorna Drummond said there had been “numerous failings that resulted in the loss of life of Mr Rodger”.
She added: “The death was reasonably foreseeable given the number of failings. There is one aggravating factor, which is failure to heed warnings by employees about ventilation arrangements and night shift rescue arrangements.”
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