A Glasgow construction company has been heavily fined after a pensioner managed to stray onto one of its sites and drowned in an excavated pit.

Kirkcaldy Sherriff Court heard that in early January 2015 an 83-year-old John Philbin with a number of age-related illnesses wandered onto a house-building site that was closed for the holidays.

While on the site he fell into a flooded excavation and died from drowning.

An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that Sandford Park Ltd had failed to install the appropriate level of fencing around the site to prevent members of the public including vulnerable adults and children from accessing the construction site.

Sandford Park Ltd of St Vincent Street, Glasgow has today pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 22(1) (l) of the Construction (Design and management) Regulations 2007, and the company has today been fined £110,000.

HSE inspector Gillian Anderson said after the hearing: “This tragic incident could have been prevented, had the company installed a continuous fence around the site.”

A Sandford Park spokesman said: “Our sincere thoughts are with Mr Philbin’s family at what is an extremely upsetting time. Site safety remains our over-riding priority and we continue to take every possible step to ensure that there can be no repeat of this tragic accident. We accept that there was a failure here for which we apologise unreservedly.”

Source : The Construction Index UK