Manufacturer handed seven-figure fine following fatality near Newark

A concrete manufacturer has been ordered to pay £1m after a 24-year-old man died whilst working on a site at Hoveringham, near Newark.

Stewart Ramsay was working for Creagh Concrete Products (CCP) at the company’s Thurgarton Lane site when he suffered fatal head injuries on 15 March 2017.

Ramsay, known as “Stew”, and colleagues were using a metal grab to unload Spantherm, a concrete building product, from trailers when the tragic incident occurred.

Ramsay’s head became trapped in the jaws of the grab after a rope connected to the locking lever snapped.

Even though the rope was tied in a double-knot, the locking mechanism released the jaws of the grab as Ramsay pulled on it, causing fatal injuries.

Stew’s mother Carol Hansford described him as a “one in a million son.”

She said: “I know a lot of people say that, but he really was out of this world.

“He was an amazing brother, grandson, uncle and nephew.

“The hundreds of friends that came to the crematorium showed how well liked and appreciated he was – it was unbelievable.

“He was just loving, caring, thoughtful and very funny.”

CCP was sentenced at Nottinghamshire Crown Court on 5 April. The firm admitted it had failed to ensure its employees were carrying out lifting operations safely, and conceded proper training and information had not been in place.

An investigation by the Health and Safety executive (HSE) found that CCP did not have a safe system of work for the use of the grab and had not carried out a risk assessment to identify risks for its use. Both the grab and a fork lift truck being used at the time were found to have been in poor condition, and therefore should not have been in use.

The investigators concluded CCP had failed to ensure the equipment was maintained in an efficient state.

Creagh Concrete Products Limited of Hoveringham, Nottinghamshire pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £1m and ordered to pay costs of £47,521.08.

HSE Inspector Amandip Dhanda said: “This tragic incident led to the avoidable death of a young man.

“Stewart’s death could easily have been prevented if his employer had acted to identify and manage the risks involved, and to put a safe system of work in place.

“The work equipment being used at the time of the incident should not have been in use, and the employer would have known this had they effectively followed their own health and safety systems.”