The foreman in charge on the night that a worker fell to his death on the Forth Bridge has told a fatal accident inquiry the man who was killed should "never" have been on the walkway.
On Wednesday, George Lowe, foreman for main contractors the Balfour Beatty, said that like all workers on the project, Robert MacDonald, 52, would have been warned not to take unauthorized routes.
The inquiry, at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, has already heard that Mr MacDonald, from Harthill, Lanarkshire, was part of a painting gang who all decided on the night he died to take the unauthorised route down a diagonal from one of the highest points on the 121-year-old structure.
The short cut was to avoid having to descend several levels by hoist and climb back up again using a series of 19 ladders to get to the area where they were supposed to be working.
The inquiry heard that to access the unauthorised walkway, the gang of three men all had to climb "under or over" a pair of scaffolding poles that had been put in place to bar the route.
In the pitch dark. Mr MacDonald, from Harthill, Lanarkshire, fell though a section where the entire floor grating of the walkway was missing and plummeted 150 feet to his death on scaffolding below the main train deck.
Mr Lowe, 38, giving evidence on the third day of the inquiry at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, said: "You are told in induction that the whole job is scaffold-based and you should only walk on the green walkways. You should never, ever cross something with a double hand rail.
"It's only advanced scaffolders that will go there -- nobody except for them."
The inquiry heard that the accident, on January 27, 2010 happened after Mr MacDonald, and two other men, Mick Muir, 43, and Joe McGinley, 56, decided to take the short cut between work stations on the top members of the bridge.
Mr Lowe said that he was responsible for the workers on the bridge and he would routinely go onto the bridge during shifts to check on them.
He said he was "shocked" to hear there were men working on the bridge when he received a phone call from Archie Neilston, a grit remover, to say that there had been an accident.
He said: "Archie Neilston called me at 7.47 pm to say that someone had fallen from the ladder access. There shouldn't have been anyone on the bridge at that time.
"I said what are you doing? Where are you?
"Archie said they were in the middle of Inchgarvie [the middle cantilever of the bridge], and someone had fallen down the ladder access and they can't reach him. He never once said they needed the emergency services -- he just said they couldn't reach him."
Mr Lowe recalled how he called the emergency services and then took them onto the bridge, where they tried to retrieve Mr MacDonald's body.
The inquiry had previously heard that it was Mr McGinley's suggestion to take the short cut.
Mr Neilston told the court in evidence that Mr MacDonald would have been "unlikely" to take a route that he thought was unsafe, and agreed that the dead man was someone who was concerned for safety.
Describing the incident itself, Mr Neilston said: "I heard Mick (Muir) shouting and he sounded distressed. I found him lying on the deck, hysterical, saying 'Rab's fell'.
"I said I would climb down a couple of levels and see if I can see him."
Mr Neilston then attempted to reach Mr MacDonald.
He said: "It was either the bottom level or the second bottom, I think he had crashed through the scaffold boards. I shouted about 10 or 12 times, shouting his name. I was there for a couple of minutes."
The inquiry, before Sheriff Ian Dunbar, was adjourned until December 13, when it will resume with technical evidence.
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