Steel erector Andrew Kitchen, 43, of Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, was working in a suspended basket at the end of a crane when it toppled over. He fell on to one of the stadium's concrete stands, dying instantly from head injuries. Robert Raynor, 29, who was also on the elevated platform, broke an arm.
Sheffield magistrates' court heard last week that the two men had been working on the construction of a corner stand when one of the wheels of the 15-tonne elevated platform broke through a concrete manhole cover, causing the crane to topple over.
The two men had been working for specialist DR Rowland, a subcontractor of Billington. Mowlem was the main contractor, but was not prosecuted.
Kevin McLoughlin, mitigating, said Billington had an experienced workforce that took safety seriously. He said the firm had used a "diligent and conscientious" contracts manager with 30 years' experience to supervise the work and he had been devastated by the incident.
McLoughlin said: "The ethos of the company is not to tolerate something that is not safe. It thought of all sorts of safety issues that had to be dealt with but the one point not thought about was the manholes and, clearly, they were there to be noticed."
The company, which is owned by Amco Corporation, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety of employees on the platform. Magistrates said the accident was foreseeable and decided their sentencing powers were not sufficient to reflect the seriousness of the incident. The case was referred to Sheffield crown court.
In the nine days in December 2000 when five construction workers died another fell to his death while working on a Sir Robert McAlpine site, also in Sheffield, and other workers died in accidents in Leicester, Dundee and Birmingham.
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