West Fraser pleads guilty to H&S breaches

Timber panel products supplier West Fraser (Europe) Ltd, formerly known as Norbord, has pleaded guilty to several health and safety breaches related to two incidents that took place at its plant in Cowie within six months of each other in 2020.

In the first event, Sean Gallagher, 29, a Utility Operator, suffered serious injuries after his leg became entangled in moving parts at the bottom of a storage bunker in January 2020.

In July of the same year, David McMillan, 39, a scaffolder, plunged more than 13 feet to the ground after a rusty plate gave way on a rooftop gantry.

The company had been fined more than £2million in 2022 after another employee died from suffering serious burns at the same plant.

West Fraser was fined £28,000 for the first indent, and £1,040,000 for the second at Stirling Sheriff Court on February 17. The court heard that Gallagher had been employed by the firm for a period of five years, spending the last two working at its biomass plant. On 20 January, he noticed a fault on a bunker at the company’s biomass plant. He initially entered the bunker to carry out an inspection, and did so in accordance with the company’s safe system of work procedure. When he identified further issues later into his shift, he entered the bunker again, but this time had not turned off the power. He became entangled in the machinery and had to use his own phone to alert a control room operator. He was eventually extracted from the machine and taken to hospital, with injuries including compound fractures to the tibia and fibula of his right leg.

As a result of the incident, the company installed a mesh guard across the bunker hatch, which is padlocked shut. It can only be unlocked by the supervisor once the system has been isolated.

The second incident happened on 21 July and resulted in David McMillan suffering multiple fractures to his body, including his neck and ankle. He had been working at height when a plate on the steel gantry gave way, causing him to fall to the ground. He spent 20 days in hospital. The subsequent HSE investigation found there was no maintenance schedule or system of checks for the gantry structure. The steel flooring to the gantry was found to have been corroded in places, while some of the welds holding the plates in place were at the point of failure.

Following the incident, the gantry was placed out of bounds before it was dismantled and removed from the site.