Herefordshire | Archive | 2006 | February | 13
From the archive, first published Monday 13th Feb 2006.
THE verdict of a Hereford inquest jury could change the way health and safety law works in the UK.
After a four-day hearing at Hereford Town Hall, the jury said that Stuart Jordan and Richard Clarkson - the two employees of city metal refining plant Bodycote HIP who died when lethal gas leaked into their work area - were unlawfully killed.
The jury decided that the deaths were due to "gross negligence" in the way the company enforced safety standards.
Case papers will be sent to the police and Crown Prosecution Service. The Health and Safety Executive is studying the verdict and what it means for national workplace policy.
Relatives of the two men gasped and wept when the verdict came in.
Speaking after the inquest the families said in a statement that they were "relieved" at the outcome, but it was no compensation for their loss.
Bodycote said it was "shocked" and disappointed by the verdict and would appeal.
County coroner David Halpern praised employees of the College Road plant for their "honest" accounts of how safety standards were routinely flouted and rarely enforced - evidence that was sometimes against their own interests, he said.
That evidence concerned an "everything's OK" attitude over-riding safety procedures at the plant when the deaths occurred in June 2004.
The inquest heard how company policy made Mr Jordan - as works manager - directly responsible for risk assessment on the site but he had not been given any training in the role.
Senior management regarded works managers as "experts" on their own sites and took their word on trust when checking on health and safety compliance. Problems left out of a works manager's report would not be picked up.
Alan Smith, responsible for overall health and safety at Bodycote's 24 UK sites said, in evidence, that it was "not practical" for him to assess the hundreds of procedures on each site.
"We rely on those who know the processes," he said.
But the inquest heard evidence from other bosses that said no checks were made on works managers to ensure they were meeting risk assessment responsibilities - or were capable of meeting them given their workload.
The inquest heard how Mr Jordan had a "very full" job description that he worked hard to meet.
Brian Birch, Bodycote's international director for health and safety compliance, said that the company now knew that it could not rely on works managers being "wholly open" with risk assessment audits.
Mr Jordan and Mr Clarkson, a maintenance engineer, were overcome by argon gas that had filled a pit containing a furnace vessel in which metal processing took place.
Argon - colourless, odourless and heavier than air - was used in refining. The inquest heard how it could be deadly in confined spaces by displacing oxygen and causing suffocation. A leak had filled the pit with argon when Mr Jordan and Mr Clarkson went down to it.
The sensors and alarms that would have warned the men were not working, the jury heard, nor were the fans that would have dispelled the gas.
The pair had not filled out permit sheets that would have shown safety checks had been made. Neither was carrying a personal monitor alerting them to unsafe oxygen levels.
Employee evidence outlined how few permits for pit work were filled out, alarms were often switched off when they sounded and monitors were not carried.
Training in safety procedures came down to word-of-mouth and "accepted practice" on the shopfloor.
Nor was there any recollection of safety checks by senior management.
The inquest was told that, since the deaths, new and strictly enforced safety measures were in place at the plant.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008