Corus fined £240,000 following lorry driver death 16 April 2010

Steelmaker Corus has been fined £240,000 and ordered to pay pay £112,500 costs, after a lorry driver was crushed under three tonnes of steel at its Staffordshire site.

Corus pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The court heard how on 4 January 2007, Ross Beddow, who was employed as a driver by A Hingley Transport, was helping to load steel plates onto a lorry.

A Corus employee was operating a crane to lift a three-tonne pack of steel from a trailer, but the load was not level, and fell on top of him.

An HSE investigation showed the system of work for loading steel was unsafe. HSE inspector Dr Wai-Kin Liu says that not all the tasks involved had been evaluated and there was scope for misunderstanding between workers.

"This was a tragedy that could and should have been avoided. All the steps involved in an overall task should be analysed to create a safe system of work, and the consequences of something going wrong should always be taken into account," says Liu.

"Anyone can make errors, no matter how well trained and motivated they are. But employers must develop a safe way of working that helps to prevent mistakes and reduces the severity of the consequences if they do occur.

"If Corus had a safe system of working then Mr Beddow would not have been killed simply doing his job."

Author
Brian Tinham

Related Companies
A Hingley Transport
Tata Steel

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