Modular firm fined £100k after "pointless" death

A Liverpool modular building specialist has been fined £100,000 after a construction worker was killed and another seriously injured when a half-ton steel lifting frame fell from an overhead crane.

Welder Keith Wharton, 41, from Kirby was killed instantly and his colleague Christopher Cansfield, 31, broke his neck and leg in the incident on 8 March 2007.

Prefab site accommodation specialist MRX Engineering Support Services, trading as Stackright Building Systems, was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £16,941 costs at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting safety breaches.

HSE Inspector Iain Evans who investigated the incident said: "Keith Wharton should not have died. His was an avoidable, pointless and unnecessary death in an environment where there were numerous safety issues.

“If the company which employed him had dutifully exercised its responsibility to ensure their safety, his family would not be here at court today grieving their loss.”

The court heard how a steel lifting frame weighing more than half a ton fell from an overhead crane.

There was no safety catch on the hook of the crane, which could have prevented the load from falling. The company should not have allowed loads to be moved over people's heads and the crane operators had not been adequately trained in its safe use.