Fatal fall during onshore wind turbine construction, inquiry findings on rescue arrangements and equipment

In March 2017 a worker died following a fall during the construction phase of an onshore wind farm in Scotland. A Fatal Accident Inquiry was held under the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc (Scotland) Act 2016 and the Sheriff's determination was issued in December 2024. The inquiry examined the circumstances of the death, the rescue response and the equipment available on site. The determination made recommendations directed at the principal contractor, the construction subcontractor and the turbine manufacturer, covering three areas: (1) joint health and safety drills involving all contractors and subcontractors, focused on rescue from height; (2) availability of basket stretchers or spinal boards capable of keeping a casualty horizontal during a rescue from height; and (3) consideration of technology to identify when a person has disconnected from a fall arrest system and to provide an audible or visual warning to colleagues. The national health and safety regulator subsequently issued public commentary encouraging industry-wide consideration of the recommendations.

As stated in the determination, which is intended to identify lessons rather than apportion fault, the inquiry identified gaps in the rescue arrangements and equipment available at the time: (a) joint rescue drills involving all contractors operating on the site were not standard practice; (b) the stretcher equipment readily available may not have been suited to keeping a casualty horizontal during a rescue from height, noting that a vertical orientation during such a rescue can increase chest pressure with adverse physiological effects; and (c) technology capable of giving early warning of disconnection from a fall arrest system was not in use at the site at the time.

Lessons drawn from the determination and the regulator's subsequent commentary:

1. plan and run joint rescue drills involving every contractor and subcontractor present on a site, rather than separate drills held by each organisation, and repeat them at the design stage, through construction and during operation;
2. select rescue stretcher equipment for the rescue scenarios credible at that site, for rescue from height this includes basket stretchers or spinal boards that keep the casualty horizontal;
3. assess the case for fall arrest disconnection detection, including interlocks on gates and fall arrest systems, arrangements that make transfer between systems and anchor points easier, and alarms that alert colleagues immediately on disconnection;
4. treat recommendations of this kind as relevant across the onshore wind sector and review site rescue plans, equipment and drills against them without waiting for a determination or formal regulatory change;
5. build rescue provision into design-stage safety cases for new projects, since retrofitting rescue equipment and detection systems to operating sites is harder than designing them in from the outset.

scotcourts.gov.uk/fatal-accident-inquiries/fatal-accident-inquiries-and-de...