A CONSTRUCTION worker has told how he rushed to help a colleague who was fatally injured while working on the new Queensferry Crossing.
Lucas Holis, 24, described how he was with John Cousin on the north tower deck of the bridge when the fitter was struck by part of a crane on April 28 last year.
A fatal accident inquiry into the death of 62-year-old Cousin, from Northumberland, got under way at Stirling Sheriff Court yesterday.
Holis, a steel workers ganger from the Czech Republic, told the inquiry the crane in question had been out of use the day before the accident due to a burst hose that was leaking hydraulic oil. It was placed in an exclusion zone and crane company GGR Group was contacted to see about getting it fixed, he said.
On the morning of the accident, Holis said he was working with GGR fitter Stewart Clark to repair the machine. He said that while working on the crane Clark had lowered the boom, causing the oil to leak “more and more” and as a result he went to fetch absorbent granules.
Holis said the two men were joined by Cousin, whom he had met a few times, and who had come over “to have a look probably”.
Holis said he was spreading the absorbent granules behind the crane when “I heard the noise, I heard steel on steel, when it starts scraping. I heard the noise and just turned around.”
At the time, he said, Clark was on the middle of the crane while Cousin was somewhere at the front of the boom holding his hands up. “It fell over on him,” he told the inquiry.
“I think [Clark] was still on the crane. I asked him if he was alright and he answered. I saw John Cousin lying there on the deck and I just ran to him straight away.”
Holis agreed the fitter had “very clear injuries” and said he put him in the recovery position. Holis added: “I just shouted for help. I could see the blood and everything.”
The crane’s fly jib was on the ground but he did not see how it had become detached, he told the inquiry.
The witness said the injured man was taken from the bridge by boat.
The inquiry continues today.Construction of the £1.3 billion new bridge across the Forth began in 2011 and it was officially opened by the Queen in September.
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