The death of a worker who was killed while carrying out "routine work" on the Queensferry Crossing has been described as "deeply regrettable".

John Grant Cousin, 62, was struck by the boom of a crane he was directing on the north tower of the under-construction bridge on April 28.

Mr Cousin, from Northumbria, was the first worker to be killed on the project since work began in 2011.

The engineer overseeing the construction of the road bridge over the Forth was asked about Mr Cousin's death at the rural economy and connectivity committee at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday.

David Climie, Transport Scotland's project director for the bridge, said the incident was still being investigated but "fundamental health and safety failures" had not been detected.

"The tragic fatal accident in April was a great shock to the project and a great setback to us all," he told the committee.

"The most troubling part is that we take on so many big challenges doing a job of this size, and those are all deeply analysed, a lot of preparation and work goes into them, to make sure that nothing like this can happen.

"The activity that was going on when the fatality occurred was a routine bit of maintenance on a bit of plant that could have been in use on any construction site in the UK.

"That was the biggest frustration to us. Regrettably within our industry that is very often the case - that it's the everyday mundane things that come and bite you. And that's deeply regrettable to our whole industry."

The £1.3bn bridge was due to open by the end of this year, but in June it was announced that the date had been revised to next May.

Mr Climie told the committee an unexpectedly bad winter followed by more poor weather in April and May had delayed the project.

Revising the opening date to May 2017 had been a "painful process," but he said he was as confident as he could be that the bridge would be ready to take traffic that month.