Aerospace firms sentenced over worker's death

Date:

25 March 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/85Brookhouse

Two aerospace firms have been fined a total of £75,000 after a worker was crushed to death at a Darwen factory.

Allan Sanderson and Gerald Powderley were helping to push a trolley carrying more than two tonnes of steel when it collapsed on them. Both workers were seriously injured and Mr Sanderson, a father of two and grandfather of one, later died in hospital.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Brookhouse Composites Ltd and Brookhouse Tooling Ltd following an investigation into the cause of the incident at Holme Mill on Bolton Road in Darwen on 17 December 2008.

The trolley and steel which crushed Mr Sanderson and Mr Powderley

Preston Crown Court heard today (25 March) that five workers had been pushing the trolley into a large industrial oven, known as an autoclave, when one of the pedestrian walkway panels under it collapsed.

Gerald Powderley, 63 from Blackburn, suffered severe injuries and is still undergoing treatment. He broke both his legs, his right foot and ankle, and needed skin grafts to his legs.

Allan Sanderson, 50 from Rishton, died in hospital the following morning as a result of his injuries.

The HSE investigation found that the trolley, which weighed nearly 2.8 tonnes, was not wide enough to fit on both the load-bearing rails inside the autoclave. Instead the wheels on the right-hand side of the trolley were rolled along the pedestrian walkway in between the rails.

The court was told workers at the site had regularly rolled the trolleys along the pedestrian walkway for nearly two years, despite the panels not being designed to carry their weight.

The panel that collapsed had been repaired by Brookhouse Tooling a month before the incident after becoming bent, but the repair method was inappropriate and the quality of the welding was poor.

The owner of the factory, Brookhouse Composites Ltd, and Mr Sanderson's employer, Brookhouse Tooling Ltd, both admitted putting worker's lives at risk.

Allan Sanderson

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Sanderson's widow, Lorraine, said:

"I find it difficult coming to terms with the fact that Allan went to work one day but never came home. I just wouldn't like to think of the same thing happening to someone else.

"I've spent all my adult life with Allan. I met him when I was 16 and we had been married for 29 years. He was my world and my life, which revolved around him and our two children.

"Allan was a family man and a devoted husband and father. The past two years have been surreal. I feel I'm stuck in a bubble that when it pops everything is going to be alright, but then reality strikes and I know my life will never be the same again.

"I've lost my husband and our two children have lost their dad but I also feel Allan was cheated out of the life he wanted to live. Our little family unit that we worked on for 29 years is gone forever."

Brookhouse Composites Ltd, of India Mill in Darwen, was charged with breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company, now trading as Kaman Composites-UK Ltd, was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £35,000 in costs.

Brookhouse Tooling Ltd, of the same address, was also charged with breaching Section 2(1) of the Act. The company, now trading as Kaman Tooling Ltd, was fined £25,000 with costs of £35,000.

Alex Farnhill, the investigating inspector at HSE, added:

"Allan Sanderson has tragically lost his life and Gerald Powderley is still very badly injured, two years after the incident, because neither of the companies responsible for their safety picked up on the warning signs.

"The walkway panels were bent out of shape over several months but no one appeared to be concerned about what was causing this. The situation was exacerbated by the poor choice of repair technique and standard of welding on the panel.

"This ultimately led to the collapse of the panel and the two workers being crushed. If the companies had thought more about the risks workers faced, then Mr Sanderson would still be alive today and Mr Powderely would not have been seriously injured."

A total of 25 workers were killed and more than 4,000 suffered major injuries in the manufacturing industry in Great Britain last year. Information on preventing injuries is available at www.hse.gov.uk/manufacturing.

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
2. Section 3(1) of the Act 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."
3. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

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