Corus pays £125,000 for chemical pit fall

Prosecutions and Claims |
15.09.2007

Steelmaker Corus UK has been fined £125,000 after an employee at its Scunthorpe site plunged feet first into a pit of hot chemicals, suffering "horrendous" burns.

On 26 March 2005, David Jones was trying to start a pump used to pipe the hot liquid into an effluent pond. The pipe "kicked" and struck him, sending him crashing through railings and into the interceptor pit. The temperature in the pit - which contained toxic chemicals including cyanide, ammonia and sodium hydroxide - was around 92 degrees celsius.

Jones tried to use his radio to summon help but it didn't work. He managed to crawl out and run to the control centre. Prosecutors said photographs showed a trail of bloody footprints.

He suffered 52% burns to his lower body and spent seven weeks in hospital. It was nearly two years before he was able to return to work on light duties.
An HSE investigation found the metal guard rails around the pit were badly corroded; the railings were not part of a planned maintenance schedule; and there was no risk assessment.

"The main point is really that it isn't sufficient to rely on the reactive reporting of faults and problems by staff," Nick James, principal inspector in the HSE's chemical industries division, told HSW. "There is a need to have a robust, effective maintenance regime in place."

Corus pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, for failing to have a suitable risk assessment, and Regulations 5(1) and 5(2) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, for not ensuring the workplace was safely maintained.

On 21 August at Grimsby Crown Court, Judge John Reddihough fined the company £125,000 plus £17,763 costs.

He said Jones's injuries were horrendous and that if he hadn't fallen feet first, he probably would have been killed. He described the state of the rails around the pit as "appalling".

David Edwards, Corus's director of cast products in Scunthorpe, expressed regret for the accident and said the firm had taken steps to prevent a recurrence.

Corus has been the subject of a number of high-profile prosecutions in recent months.

In December 2006, it was fined £1.33 million for safety breaches relating to the Port Talbot furnace explosion, which killed three people and seriously injured 12 others in 2001.

Earlier this year, the firm was fined £100,000 over the death of a worker who was electrocuted at the Scunthorpe site in 2003.