Council fined £20k after pensioner dies in car plunge at pier

A LOCAL authority was fined £20,000 yesterday after a pensioner died when his car plunged into the Clyde from a council-owned car park.

Duncan MacGillivray, 75, drowned on September 17, 2007 after his car went over the unprotected north face of Dunoon's Coal Pier, when he used the wrong gear.

Argyll and Bute Council pleaded guilty at Dunoon Sheriff Court to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by failing to carry out a risk assessment, before opening the paying car park in May 2006, and failing to erect a protective barrier round its north edge.

And it emerged yesterday that the council neglected to meet their legal requirement to inform the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) of the incident.

A spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive, asked if the matter had been reported by the council, said: "I can confirm that any duty holder has a legal obligation to inform the HSE immediately if they are responsible for a fatal accident.

"In this instance Argyll and Bute Council did not inform HSE. However, no further charges are expected to be brought against the council in relation to this incident."

Sally Clark, of the Crown Office Health and Safety Unit, told an earlier hearing that the council had a legal obligation for the safe operation of the car park. She said a simple risk assessment would have shown that protective barriers were needed to stop vehicles entering the water.

Miss Clark told how, on the afternoon of the tragedy, a witness had recalled seeing Mr MacGillivray's Vauxhall Astra moving slowly forward, at about 5mph, before it went over the edge of the pier.

Two days later a council risk assessment concluded that barriers and extra lighting were needed.

Peter Robertson, representing Argyll and Bute Council, said it "deeply regretted" the death of Mr MacGillivray, of Queen Street, Dunoon, and the distress to his family.

He said the council fully accepted that it had made "a serious mistake" in failing to carry out a risk assessment before opening the car park, which had been a working pier - with an open north face for vessels to berth - until 1997.

Sheriff Desmond McCaffrey fined the council 20,000, noting the council pled guilty immediately and had fully co-operated with all the agencies involved.

Elaine Taylor, head of specialist prosecutors at Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) Health and Safety Division, said: "The tragic death of Mr MacGillivray was entirely avoidable and the failings accepted by the council underline the vital need for suitable and sufficient risk assessment in order that organisations may conduct their business safely.

"Today our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Mr MacGillivray and we trust that they can find some small comfort in the successful prosecution of those responsible for the incident that caused him to lose his life.

"We hope that lessons can be learned to prevent similar tragedies in the future."

HSE Inspector Mike Orr said: "A simple risk assessment would have identified the clear risks of an unprotected sheer drop into the sea at the edge of the car park. Argyll and Bute Council should have been well aware of its responsibilities and its failings are clear."

A spokeswoman for the council said: "Argyll and Bute Council deeply regrets that this accident was able to happen, and the distress that Mr MacGillivray's death brought to his family and friends.

"Actions carried out to prevent a recurrence, before the car park reopened, included the installation of a traffic barrier and pedestrian hand rails."