The Arbroath quarry operator has now been fined £200,000 for serious safety failings.
Joseph Troup had worked for D Geddes (Contractors) Ltd at its Hatton Mill Quarry in Kinnell, Froickheim for 18 years when the incident occurred on 26th July 2012.
A stop block should have prevented the accident happening, but it was so clogged with rubble and earth that it acted as a ramp instead.
Forfar Sheriff Court heard that Mr Troup had loaded material from the extraction face onto his 35-tonne articulated dump truck and transported it to an area by the processing plant’s input hopper. He began tipping the load into the hopper where material is transferred by conveyor belts to the processing plant to be turned into sand and gravel aggregate. At the time of the incident, the assistant quarry manager heard the revving of Mr Troup’s truck, indicating that the tipper was being raised. But as he looked up he saw that the vehicle’s rear wheels were on the metal bars that cover the top of the input hopper. The truck body was not raised at all; the vehicle was reversing back over the hopper.
As it reversed, the rear of the truck rolled beyond the end of the metal bars and fell onto the quarry floor below.
Mr Troup was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from his seat as the vehicle fell. He died instantly as a result of head injuries.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) was unable to identify the exact reason for the vehicle reversing. Mr Troup may have inadvertently pulled the gear lever into the reverse position when attempting to pull the tipping lever, since the two levers are side by side. The vehicle was able to move because the parking brake had not been applied.
HSE found that the stop block above the input hopper at the time was ineffective in stopping the reversing dump truck due to a combination of insufficient height and the ramping of sand and gravel used in the construction of the stop block.
The metal stop block and the compacted material on top measured 41cm. A build-up of tipped material in front of the block had effectively allowed it to act as a ramp which a large wheeled vehicle was capable of driving over.
During the investigation, the built-up material was removed and the ground in front of the stop block was dug out to reveal its full height of 63cm, which would have prevented the dumper truck from accidentally being reversed.
D Geddes (Contractors) Ltd, of Swirlburn, Colliston, Arbroath, was fined £200,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 6 of The Quarries Regulations (as amended) 1999.
Following the case, HSE inspector Richard Noble said: “The task of reversing a heavy vehicle to the stop block of an input hopper of a processing plant is an inherently dangerous one. D Geddes (Contractors) Ltd should have identified the risk of the vehicle reversing over the input hopper stop block and the driver being injured, or killed, and ensured measures were in place to prevent this from happening.
“There is well-established guidance available on safe tipping at quarries, which if followed, would have prevented this tragic incident.”
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