Runaway digger firm banned from the roads after death of bride-to-be

Published on Friday 22 May 2009 23:38

A HAULAGE company has had its licence withdrawn after a bride-to-be was crushed to death by a 35-tonne digger.

Christina Fraser, 24, was killed after the digger rolled off a transport lorry and hit the car in which she was a passenger on the A9 in Ross-shire in July 2006.

Munro and Son, based in Alness in the Highlands, admitted a breach of health and safety legislation at the High Court in Edinburgh last year. The firm was fined 3,750 by Lord Brailsford. In January, that fine was increased to 30,000.

The haulage company has had 28 prohibitions against it for safety breaches since 2005. These included defects that led to Ms Fraser's death, as well as problems with brakes, oil leaks and loose wheel nuts.

Yesterday, Joan Aitken, Scotland Traffic Commissioner, withdrew the company's operating licence, which will force the firm to shut down at the end of next month.

She also disqualified a former director, Pamela Munro, for two years.

Kenneth Finlayson, the driver involved in an accident on the A9 last year and whose name appeared in a number of prohibitions, was disqualified for 12 months.

In her written decision, which details the accident that led to Ms Fraser's death, Ms Aitken said: "There can be no more victims."

She added: "Clearly, my orders will have significant impacts on the business, including perhaps job losses, and steps will have to be taken to adjust the operation of the wider business."

The traffic commissioner concluded: "Disqualified operators often seek to re-emerge in other corporate form.

"I warn other operators and persons to be very wary of providing a front for continued operation by Messrs Munro."

In January, following an appeal, judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh increased the original fine to 30,000 to "bring home" the consequences of the 2006 fatal accident. Lord Nimmo Smith, who delivered the ruling, said the lorry driver, Walter MacLennan, was not to be blamed, and the fault lay with individuals higher up in the company.

Scotland's senior judge, the Lord Justice General, Lord Hamilton, said the fine "took inadequate account of the nature of the offence itself and the need for appropriate punishment in the public interest".

Customers of Munro & Sons (Highland) Ltd, which is part of a wider operation, have been informed of the action taken. These include Highland Council, Inverness College and RAF Kinloss in Moray.

Ms Fraser, a beautician, from Arabella, near Tain, died instantly in the crash at Tomich. The runaway digger rolled about 200 yards out of a side road and on to the busy main road, crushing the car that Ms Fraser was in.

Her colleague, Julie MacKay, 45, was driving home from Inverness at the time and suffered serious injuries.

Ms Fraser's fianc, Garry Ross, 23, came across the crash that killed his future wife.

At the time, Mr Ross told how he and Ms Fraser had planned to marry and have children. The couple had just built their home, "Garstein" – a combination of their first names – at Arabella.

Mr Ross revealed his fiance of three years had been planning to give up her job in Inverness, because she hated the 35-mile commute from their home.

Mr Ross, a contract manager for Metalwork UK in Tain, said: "She didn't like the travelling. It is a fair commute and her leaving to find a job nearer to home was something we had talked about for a while."

He added: "If something closer to home came up, she would have taken it."

In January, when the original fine imposed was increased, Linda Fraser, 56, the victim's mother, said the family did not feel a sense of closure.

She said: "For us, it's a life sentence.

"We could never leave Tain because we could never leave Christina behind.

"It is such a dreadful loss, like an ache in the heart," she said. "I still expect to bump into her in Tain, and I sometimes see her in my dreams."