A company that runs a Cowie chipboard factory is facing massive fines after admitting its safety failings led to two separate industrial accidents that caused serious injuries to two different workers within six months.
WestFraser (Europe) Ltd, formerly known as Norbord, pleaded guilty to multiple breaches of health and safety at its plant in Cowie.
Sean Gallagher, 29, a utility operator, suffered serious injuries and permanent impairment after his leg became entangled in moving parts at the bottom of a storage bunker in January 2020.
David McMillan, 39, a scaffolder, plunged more than 13 feet to the ground after a rusty plate gave way on a rooftop gantry in July the same year.
The factory, a major employer in the Falkirk, Stirling and Alloa areas for over 50 years, was originally known as Caberboard.
It was opened in the 1970s by private traders with German and American finance, and was the first factory in the UK to manufacture the ubiquitous natural wood substitute MDF.
It is now in Canadian ownership.
Prosecutor Catherine Fraser told Stirling Sheriff Court on Tuesday that Mr Gallagher had entered the bunker where the accident happened, which stored biomass for the plant’s boilers, in order to clear a clogged auger.
Without turning off the power and isolating the system, he got into the bunker through an inspection hatch that had no protective guard fitted, and his right leg became entangled in the auger.
Despite his injuries, he telephoned the control room from within the bunker using his company mobile, and control room staff isolated the machinery and contacted the emergency services.
He was taken to Forth Valley Royal Infirmary with compound fractures to both the tibia and fibula in his right leg that required the fitting of a metal frame to support the healing bones, and multiple lacerations that required skin grafts.
He suffered nerve damage, muscle loss and bone loss, still required treatment for both his physical and mental injuries, and hasn’t returned to work since, the court was told.
The court heard the company had since fitted a secondary guard to the hatch, secured by a padlock, the key to which is kept secure in the supervisor’s office, and only issued in the event of the entire system being isolated and locked off.
Regarding the second accident, Ms Fraser, the depute fiscal, said Mr McMillan, an employee of a Chester-based firm, Palmers Scaffolding UK, was providing holiday cover at the site when he was instructed to help erect scaffolding to provide access for maintenance, using a permanent gantry on the roof accessed by a fixed ladder.
Having completed his task on the roof, he set out to descend, but as he jumped down onto the gantry a rusty floor plate gave way, falling to the ground and taking Mr McMillan with it.
Ms Fraser said it was “immediately obvious” to his colleagues that he was seriously injured, and the emergency services were called,
He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow with ankle fractures, a “shattered” left heel, a broken elbow and ribs, multiple fractures to vertebrae in his neck, a collapsed lung and a broken finger.
Ms Fraser said an inspection showed the steel floor plates of the gantry were corroded and the welds holding them to the structure were also corroded to the point of failure.
Inspectors concluded the “likely cause” of the walkway floor collapsing was corrosion of a floor plate at its supporting edge.
Their report added: “Due to the location of the floor plate that failed, general corrosion of the steel gantry, and the presence of moss and debris, it is likely that the poor condition of the edge of the plate went unnoticed.”
The court heard that immediately after the accident, the gantry was placed out of bounds, dismantled, and removed.
The company has since introduced an improved system of maintenance, the court was told. The court heard the company had been convicted and fined £2.15 million in 2020 for an incident at the Cowie plant in which an employee suffered fatal burns. Sheriff Keith O’Mahony deferred sentence until January 24 to determine the level of fine.