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Family of frozen New Cumnock windfarm worker welcome company fines 

Credit:  Family of frozen windfarm worker welcome nearly £900k in fines for guilty companies | By Fionnuala Boyle, Reporter | Cumnock Chronicle | www.cumnockchronicle.com ~~

Two companies have been fined a total of nearly £900,000 after a wind farm security worker froze to death near New Cumnock.

Ronnie Alexander was on duty at the Afton Windfarm construction site on January 21, 2018 during bad weather. The 74-year-old was found lying in the snow and later died in hospital.

Today at Ayr Sheriff Court [November 17], Northstone (NI) Ltd and Corporate Service Management Ltd were fined a total of £868,800 after previously pleading guilty to failings under health and safety legislation.

Northstone were fined £768,000 for their failings and Corporate Service Management were fined £100,800.

Northstone were the construction company who ran the remote site. There were two generators to provide heating and electricity, both of which had broken a number of times and hadn’t been replaced. There was no backup generator.

With no landline service and limited mobile coverage an internet phone system was used, which required a password and power from the generator.

The password was not provided to Corporate Service Management and the security guards had no access.

Corporate Service Management provided security guards to the site. Although they knew about the lack of signal, they expected their staff to use personal mobiles in an emergency.

On January 21, a Sunday, Mr Alexander and his colleague were the only staff on site. Mr Alexander was on duty in the gatehouse and his colleague was 860 metres uphill at the main compound.

Other workers had arrived in the morning to try and clear the snow but the weather was too bad and they left around 11am, telling Mr Alexander’s colleague at the main compound that if he didn’t follow them down in the next 5-10 minutes, the road would be blocked. At this time there was no snow on the 4×4 vehicle provided to the security guard.

At 1pm, Mr Alexander’s colleague tried to drive the 4×4 down to the gatehouse but it got stuck in the snow. He tried to walk but the snow was too deep.

Over the course of the next three hours he kept trying to move the vehicle and walk to the gatehouse but was unsuccessful.

At 5pm the guard went to the top of a small hill to get mobile service and called his supervisor to report the 4×4 was trapped in deep snow and the generator had gone out, leaving him without heating and lighting.

He was told to try and drive to the gatehouse, collect Mr Alexander and leave. Contact between the guard and his supervisor was then lost.

Due to the weather, the nightshift was cancelled, but the two guards who were due to start work at 6pm tried to help their colleagues.

It took them almost an hour to walk the 4km from the car park to the gatehouse, which was in darkness with the generator out. They couldn’t see their colleagues or get further up the hill so returned to their car and emergency services were called.

Mountain rescue teams managed to reach the gatehouse just before midnight, where they found Mr Alexander’s colleague.

Mr Alexander was found lying in snow a short distance away. He was airlifted to hospital but later died.

In a statement released through Digby Brown Solicitors, Mr Alexander’s family said: “We had to wait years just to get the conviction but now that we have the sentence we can now say we have justice.

“We are gobsmacked at the level of fine handed down by the sheriff – we certainly welcome it.

“But ultimately it is all bittersweet because at the end of the day we are still without Ronnie and no punishment can change that.

“We’d just like to thank all our friends and family for their support during this time but now just wish to have our privacy respected as we come to terms with everything.”

Alistair Duncan, head of the health and safety investigation unit at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: “Ronnie Alexander’s death might have been prevented if appropriate measures for workers to call for help in an emergency had been in place.

“By failing to ensure the safety of the workers on such a remote site, both Northstone (NI) Ltd and Corporate Service Management Ltd left them in unacceptable risk.

“This prosecution should remind other employers that failing to keep their employees safe can have fatal consequences and they will be held accountable for this failure.

“Our thoughts are with Mr Alexander’s family at this difficult time.”

A spokesperson for Northstone (NI) Limited said: “Northstone accepts that on this occasion at Afton Windfarm we did not meet the high health and safety standards that we seek to achieve to protect our employees, customers, clients, subcontractors and communities.

“We deeply regret that this resulted in the death of Mr. Ronald Alexander. Our thoughts and sincerest sympathies remain with his family and friends.

“We took immediate action on the Afton Windfarm project to prevent a re-occurrence. As part of our internal investigation and the subsequent findings of this investigation we have reviewed and improved our risk control processes across the business.”

Corporate Service Management Ltd has been contacted for comment.

Source:  Family of frozen windfarm worker welcome nearly £900k in fines for guilty companies | By Fionnuala Boyle, Reporter | Cumnock Chronicle | www.cumnockchronicle.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

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