Buncefield trio are found guilty
21 Jun 2010
London – A jury at St Albans’ Crown Court has found Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd (HOSL), TAV Engineering Ltd and Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd guilty in a court case relating to the explosion and fire at Buncefield Oil Storage Depot on 11 Dec 2005.
HOSL was found guilty of failing to prevent major accidents and limit their effects and had also pleaded guilty to causing pollution to enter controlled waters underlying the vicinity around Buncefield. The other two companies were found guilty of failing to protect workers and members of the public.
“This was the biggest and most complex criminal inquiry we have worked on together - the product of many hundreds of hours of painstaking forensic investigation,” said a statement from the UK’s Health and Safety Executive.
“When the largest fire in peacetime Europe tore through the Buncefield site on that Sunday morning in December 2005, these companies had failed to protect workers, members of the public and the environment.
“The scale of the explosion and fire at Buncefield was immense and it was miraculous that nobody died. Unless the high hazard industries truly learn the lessons, then we may not be that fortunate in future.”
Sentencing is planned to take place on 16 July at St Albans Crown Court.
Total UK Ltd and British Pipeline Agency Ltd have already pleaded guilty to charges over the incident.
