Co Antrim company fined £20,000 after employee (60) fatally injured in 'entirely preventable' work incident
A Co Antrim scaffolding company has been fined £20,000 after an employee was fatally injured at work.
Samuel Magill, a 60-year-old employee of 7 Towers Scaffolding Ltd, was collecting scaffolding components from a construction site on the Lisburn Road, Belfast, on December 18, 2024, when the incident happened.
A 7 Towers Scaffolding Ltd team was in the process of dismantling scaffolding when a removed metal scaffolding component was dislodged from the top area of the works, falling approximately eight metres. The metal board, approximately 2.4 metres long, struck the employee on his head.
Paramedics attended the scene and he was transferred to hospital by ambulance, where he remained until he passed away on February 5, 2025.
The company, with an address listed on the charge sheet as Millwater Lodge, Ahoghill, Ballymena, had earlier pleaded guilty to a single health and safety offence.
An investigation by HSENI (Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland) found the company had not sufficiently managed and controlled the exclusion zone around the scaffolding during its dismantling phase, by not having adequate measures to prevent people getting close to the scaffolding who were not directly involved in the dismantling.
It established the injured employee was a collection driver who had arrived to collect the dismantled scaffold components. He had parked his vehicle on the pavement directly outside the site and proceeded on foot to the site. He was injured by the falling scaffolding board, at the extremity of the exclusion zone of the construction site, which was adjacent to the pavement.
Prosecutors in the PPS’s Fraud & Departmental Section worked closely with HSENI to build a robust prosecution case.
Speaking after the hearing at Laganside Crown Court on Thursday (October 22), Major Investigation Team Inspector Kevin Campbell said: “This tragic incident was entirely preventable. Samuel Magill suffered serious injuries as a result of being struck by a metal scaffolding board that fell in an uncontrolled manner.
“All employers must ensure that they have robust procedures to ensure that equipment and components are lowered to the ground in a controlled method. Clear work instructions must be communicated effectively to all the relevant personnel involved in the activity."