A CRANE hire firm has been charged with ‘corporate manslaughter’ over the death of a driver at Scout Moor wind farm three years ago.
Lindsey Easton, 49, was killed when the eight-axled 130-tonne crane he was driving crashed on a steep road at the Edenfield site in August 2011.
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It is alleged that the crane’s brakes failed before it crashed into an earth bank and fell from the road, while carrying out work on wind turbines at the farm, which is operated by Peel Energy.
Jane Wragg, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, has now authorised charges against Mr Easton’s employers, Baldwins Crane Hire Ltd.
She said: “I have carefully reviewed the evidence gathered by Lancashire Police and the Health and Safety Executive during their investigation into the tragic death of Lindsay Easton. I have concluded that Baldwins Crane Hire Ltd should be charged with an offence of corporate manslaughter.”
The prosecutor said there was also enough evidence to charge the firm’s Leeds operation with two further offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Company representatives will be asked to enter pleas to the three charges at Burnley Magistrates' Court.
Mr Easton, of Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, who had spent his working life driving cranes, left a wife and three children.
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