Wind Farm Death Sparks Health and Safety Audit

Earlsburn wind farm admits to safety issue.  The manufacturer is targeted in health and safety audits due to a death of a worker.  The worker fell to his death from 100 feet.  The young man was only 19 at the time of the incident.  The fall caused instant death.  This has prompted the farm to admit that the fall was related to a failure in health and safety and eventually led to death.

The worker was trying to fix the turbine when the incident occurred.  Nordex UK admitted in court that they were responsible for a variety of health and safety failings including the one that led to the young worker’s death.  The Manchester based firm had issues between 2006 and 2007 with safety and health.  They also pleaded guilty to getting the wind turbines accessed with proper equipment.  All of the 15 onsite turbines were constructed at the current location.  The access points used such as ladders were not the best in terms of practicality.  The young man died in 2007, and changes have occurred since then, but it has taken this long for the case to come to court.

The company has also suffered great losses since then due to economic shifts, meaning that Nordex may not be able to pay a sizable penalty since their finances are insolvent.  It makes the death hard when the company may not be able to make any reparations for such an incident that has been caused by their own faults in safety measures.