Worker killed by crane ‘was in a prohibited area’

A MAINTENANCE worker on the Queensferry Crossing was killed by the falling jib of a crane after entering a prohibited area and ‘involving himself’ in a repair without being asked, a court heard yesterday.

Isabelle Martin, the Health and Safety Executive’s principal inspector for the construction industry in Scotland, told a fatal accident inquiry into the death of John Cousin that she and colleagues had assessed the evidence surrounding the tragedy.

She said Mr Cousin, 62, was a highly skilled and experienced fitter employed by Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors, the consortium building the bridge, to maintain and repair equipment.

But she added that, though he had worked on large machinery on construction projects all over the world, inspectors could find no evidence that he had any experience of ‘small’ cranes such as the one involved in the tragedy.

On April 2 , 2016, Mr Cousin sustained unsurvivable injuries after the jib of the hired Giraf track crane, weighing more than half a ton, fell on him while a fitter for the machine’s owner, Stewart Clark, was preparing to replace a leaking hydraulic hose.

Miss Martin said that the accident occurred when Mr Cousin removed a central pin securing the jib.

He had not been asked to help and was not supposed to be in that area.

The evidence stage of the inquiry, at Stirling Sheriff Court, closed after Miss Martin’s evidence.

Sheriff William Gilchrist will give his determination in writing later.