An Aberlour-based haulage firm has been fined for safety failings after a worker was seriously injured when an unsecured barrel fell from a lorry onto his head.
McPherson Limited employee William ‘Dougald’ Sim, then 60, from Aberlour, was unloading the vehicle at Speyside Cooperage when the incident happened on 14 January 2013.
Elgin Sheriff Court was told today (25 September) that Mr Sim had driven the three-level vehicle loaded with 210 empty bourbon casks from the company’s Fisherton Garage depot in Aberlour to Speyside Cooperage, where the casks were to be unloaded for repair.
He parked along the slope of the unloading bay with the cab facing the front of the Cooperage. A landing sponge was placed at the rear of the lorry to catch loads if they fell but no restraints were put in place to prevent the barrels falling from the third tier other than wooden chocks.