Steel processor fined £75,000 for fatal crushing

Prosecutions and Claims |
15.09.2007

A steel company has been fined £75,000 for safety failures that led to a worker being crushed to death between two vehicles.

Arcelor Avis SSC, formerly known as Avis Steel Services, processes steel coils into flat panel sheets at its Worsley site, north-west of Manchester.

Paul Howell was part of a night-shift team - known as a yard team - working in despatch. His job involved loading wagons with the steel sheets during the night, ready for despatch to customers the next day.

On 15 April 2005, Howell reached into a wagon to turn on the ignition so it could be moved. It is thought that the wagon had been left in gear without its parking brake on, so when Howell turned the ignition the engine fired immediately and the vehicle started to move at a walking pace (about six kilometres an hour). Howell opened the driver's door to try to stop the vehicle but it collided with another, stationary, wagon and he was crushed between the two.

HSE inspector Charles Cottle explained that while a car might have shuddered and stalled, there was enough power in the diesel engine of the unloaded wagon to drive it forward.

Cottle told HSW the practice of starting "from the ground" - that is, reaching inside the wagons to start their engines rather than climbing into the driver's seat to operate them - was common practice among the company's night-shift despatch workers.

"Unfortunately, there was no evidence of any real training or instruction," he said, "and supervision was poor: on the night shift, the yard team was kind of left to get on with the job themselves ... the company overlooked what was going on in the yard."

Arcelor pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity before Trafford magistrates to charges of failing to ensure Howell's safety contrary to Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The company was fined £75,000 plus costs of £7282 at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court on 20 July.

Since the accident, the company has provided the despatch team with information, instruction and training on safe working procedures.

Cottle said the accident was the result of omission rather than deliberate neglect but the seriousness of the outcome should send a message to all businesses. "Even if you've got a fairly responsible, sensible workforce, they need to be trained, they need to be supervised and they need to be instructed," he said.