Family of Dundee man killed at work in 2005 seeking closure

The sister of a man electrocuted at work in Dundee 15 years ago says a change in the law is needed to help grieving families secure closure.

Louise Taggart’s brother Michael Adamson was just 26 when he was killed on August 4 2005 while working on a JJB Sports store in the City of Discovery.

Mitie Engineering Services (Edinburgh) was fined £300,000 after the electrician’s death, but Louise – who is now a member of Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) and a trustee of Scottish Hazards, a health and safety charity which looks to prevent workplace injuries – said the company’s conviction under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 was not “anywhere approaching justice” for the family.

“I expect you might receive objections from some quarters that these proposals are an unnecessary ‘burden on business’,” she said.

“But grandparents who are told by their granddaughter that all she wants from Santa is a big long ladder so that daddy can climb down from the sky, they bear the real burden.

“The mother who heads to court for the final day of her son’s employer’s prosecution with locks of his hair from the day he was born and the day he died, she bears the real burden.

“I urge those who will talk about burdens to think again, because it is we FACK families who have borne – and who will forever continue to bear – the burden of poor health and safety regulation and enforcement.

“Above all we want culpable homicide legislation that serves as a deterrent. Understand that there are very rarely “accidents at work”, because an accident waiting to happen is no accident.”

Louise recalled how the advocate acting for the company in court described it as the “invisible man” sitting in the dock, adding: “The invisible man had been convicted of the health and safety failures that led to his death.

“But the invisible man did not take the decisions that resulted in Michael’s death, real-life individuals did.

“And far too frequently this is the case: a family bereaved by work is left to feel that we have failed our lost loved ones, because the justice system has failed us.

“For the victim’s family, where death occurs because of the reckless or grossly negligent conduct of a company, a prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act does not reflect the magnitude of the failures.

“They will only see justice being served if the company, and where appropriate its managers and directors, are prosecuted of a crime with the appropriate moral stigma and level of censure.”