Safe systems of work essential after contractor injured at Aberthaw Power Station

Date:

6 May 2010

Release No:

374/W/09

A Welsh company has been prosecuted after a worker was injured by compressed air.

RWE Npower of Whitehill Way, Swindon managed the Aberthaw Power Station in the Vale of Glamorgan where the incident happened. A contractor was injured while working on a compressed air system on 22 February 2007. He had a permit to work the system but believed it had been isolated.

He opened the system while it was still charged, and received hand and arm injuries from the escaping compressed air.

RWE Npower of Whitehill Way, Swindon, pleaded guilty to one charge under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and at Cardiff Crown Court was fined £8,000 with costs of £14,000.

HSE Inspector Steve Curry said:

"It was the responsibility of the RWE Npower in this case to ensure that areas that they had declared as being safe to work in, were actually safe. There was a significant failing in those responsibilities on this occasion.

"The pressure in this particular system can reach around 80 psi (pound-force per square inch), and the contractor continued work having been provided with a permit effectively confirming that the area where he was working had been isolated. Clearly his injuries demonstrate that this was not the case.

"Compressed air can be extremely dangerous if not handled properly and so the need for a safe system of working with it, is particularly important."

Notes to editors

1. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
2. Visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg39.htm for further information about compressed air.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR Wales