NI Water Service censured for blast death

News | HSW
01.02.2007

Northern Ireland's state-run water supplier has accepted that its inadequate risk management procedures failed to protect the safety of contract workers. The admission by the Northern Ireland Water Service followed a violent gas explosion at a treatment works in Londonderry that killed one contractor and seriously injured another.

The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) brought a Crown Censure following the incident on 2 June 2005 during construction work at Carmoney Water Treatment Works. Drew Stevenson was on the roof of the plant welding for a contractor when hydrogen gas ignited, causing a massive explosion that blew a storage tank through the roof and about 45 to 60 metres onto a hill behind the works. He died and one of his colleagues was badly hurt.

An investigation by the HSENI concluded that Northern Ireland Water Service, an executive agency of the Department for Regional Development, had failed to take adequate steps to prevent the risk of explosion during construction work near a source of hydrogen gas. The Crown Censure - an administrative procedure used when Crown immunity prevents a prosecution in court - was issued on 5 December 2006. The Water Service accepted censure under Article 5 of the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 for failing to protect non-employees, and Regulation 6 of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 for not eliminating or reducing risks from dangerous substances.

Crown Censure hearings are closed meetings where the HSENI inspector presents evidence and the Crown body gives its response. In accepting the censure, the Water Service agreed that, but for its crown immunity, there was sufficient evidence for the case to have gone to court with a reasonable chance of conviction.