Welsh refinery hit with £400k ‘laceration’ fine

The incident occurred after a tower walkway, which provided gangway access to a stationary tanker vessel, dropped 3.5 metres, causing operator David Thomas to be trapped by a slack wire rope, Swansea Crown Court heard.

It was particularly disappointing to find that although the company knew there had been problems with the operation of the access tower, the company had failed to investigate these properly

HSE inspector Andrew Knowles

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found multiple safety failings leading up to the incident.

These included: failure to carry out a sufficient risk assessment of the use and operation of the access tower; failure to provide adequate information, instruction and training to employees as to the safe use and operation of the access tower; and failure to carry out adequate investigations into the previous and related incidents of September 2011, February 2011 and, in particular, August 2010, the HSE said.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Andrew Knowles said: “It was particularly disappointing to find that although the company knew there had been problems with the operation of the access tower, the company had failed to investigate these properly and had relied on changes to instructions, rather than taking action to modify the defective hardware, as required by the hierarchy of risk control.

“This was even more surprising in view of the fact that the company operates a major hazard refinery site where you would expect such problems to be taken more seriously and effectively investigated, with suitable corrective actions implemented.”

Valero Energy pleaded guilty to a single charge of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at a previous hearing.

The refinery was also ordered to pay costs of £60,614.