Tata Steel fined £1.4m following maintenance worker death
21 Feb 2018
Tata Steel was fined £1.4 million in February following the death of 26-year-old maintenance engineer Thomas Standerline in 2010.
The incident occurred while Standerline was carrying out inspection duties at Tata’s Scunthorpe plant. Hull Crown Court heard how a crane, which travelled over the cage Standerline was working in, trapped and crushed him.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Tata Steel had failed to enforce its own safety procedures, despite having two previous incidents before Standerline’s death.
The investigation also found Tata Steel failed to put in place essential control measures that HSE says would have prevented the overhead crane from being in operation.
The firm pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 and Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and incurred costs of £140,000 in addition to its fine.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE principal inspector Kirsty Storer said: “This tragic loss of life could have been avoided had the company adhered to and enforced its own safety procedures. Despite two previous incidents sharing features with the one which ultimately cost Mr Standerline his life, the company failed both to take these as a warning sign and to act on safety recommendations.”
Last year, Tata Steel also incurred a £1 million fine following an incident in which toxic and flammable substances were released from the Scunthorpe site.
In that instance there was no loss of life, which HSE inspector Stephen Hargreaves described as “extremely fortunate”.
