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A mining company has been ordered to pay a £150,000 fine following the preventable death of an electrician who was caught in the blades of a large ventilation fan in the Scottish Highlands. The incident happened at Lochaline Quartz Sand’s underground mine, where the electrician was working to restore power in the aftermath of Storm Ashleigh. Tragically, a colleague discovered him trapped with fatal injuries.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed multiple serious failures concerning how the ventilation fan had been modified, maintained, and commissioned. Kevin Wilson, HSE’s chief inspector of mines and quarries, emphasized the preventability of the accident, stating, “Colin Thwaites was a highly experienced mining professional with decades of service. He should have gone home to his family that day. Our investigation found that when the fan was modified, the risks were not identified. This was a tragic and entirely preventable death.”
HSE inspectors arrived at the site, which is Europe’s only quartz sand mine used primarily for glass production, the day after the fatality on 21 October 2024. Their examination uncovered that the ventilation fan had originally been one half of a two-fan unit but had been separated into individual parts. This alteration resulted in the rotating blades being positioned dangerously close—just 43mm—to the intake guard, far below the required safety distance of 200mm. Furthermore, the protective guard covering the fan blades was a makeshift creation, assembled on site from two metal lattice mesh sheets, and was both poorly designed and in a seriously degraded state, with large sections missing.
The rear portion of the fan was completely unguarded. Inspectors concluded that had the guard been properly designed and maintained, it likely would have prevented the fatal accident. Lochaline Quartz Sand Ltd, headquartered in Ormskirk, Lancashire, admitted to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act. Following enforcement action by the HSE, the company engaged a specialist mining consultancy to implement safety improvements. At Inverness Sheriff Court, Lochaline Quartz Sand was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay an additional victim surcharge of £11,250
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