Farmer jailed after man crushed in digger crash

Andrew Grant has been jailed for breaching health and safety laws

A farmer has been jailed for a year after being convicted of failing to maintain a tractor and trailer that crushed and killed a motorist.

The vehicles belonging to Andrew Grant failed to slow down on a hill on the outskirts of Glasgow and crashed into other vehicles.

Francis Mooney, 60, died in the incident in Fernhill Road in May 2016.

The brakes on the tractor and the trailer, which was loaded with a 13-tonne digger, were defective.

Grant, 36, of Mid Calder, was sentenced at the High Court in Inverness on Thursday.

• Man who died in digger crash named

He was found guilty in January of breaching health and safety laws following a trial at the High Court in Livingston.

One of his workers, Christopher Nimmo, had been driving the tractor. Mr Nimmo was seriously injured and two other drivers were hurt in the crash.

During his trial Grant had been facing an accusation of culpable homicide, but a jury acquitted him of that charge.

The crash happened on the outskirts of Glasgow in May 2016

Judge Lord Armstrong said there was no sentence he could impose that could bring comfort to the families whose lives had been devastated.

Grant's lawyer had appealed for a sentence other than prison.

Mr Nimmo told the High Court in Livingston his brake pedal went to the floor as he tried to slow down on a steep hill.

He tried the handbrake several times, but that did not work either. Mr Nimmo also told how he tried to alert other motorists by waving his hands and sounding the horn and flashing the lights on the tractor.

The court heard that Grant did not have the required HGV operator's licence, which required six-weekly mechanical checks on his vehicles and weekly checks on the trailer brakes.

The tractor's brake fluid should have been replaced every two years, but had not been changed for six years.

Inspections following the crash also found faults with the trailer's brakes.

Grant told his trial that since the incident he had obtained an operator's licence, hired a transport manager and installed a system to ensure proper and timely maintenance was carried out on his current fleet of four articulated lorries.