Marine company put diver's life at risk

Date:

27 June 2011

The owner of a Falmouth marine company has been fined £10,000 for a raft of safety breaches which put one of its diver's lives at serious risk.

Kenneth Dunstan, trading as Mylor Marine Maintenance of Marlowe Bridge, was found to be in breach of four diving safety regulations, one of which presented such a serious risk that diving was stopped with immediate effect.

Truro Magistrates' Court heard on Friday (24 June) how the breaches were discovered during a spot inspection on the Fal Estuary on 5 May 2010. On that day, Benjamin Taffinder of Portscatho, Truro, an employee of Mr Dunstan, had been engaged in underwater maintenance work on moorings in the St Mawes area of the estuary from a purpose-built mooring maintenance vessel.

HSE inspectors boarded the vessel where there were three crew members, including Mr Dunstan and Mr Taffinder, with Mr Dunstan working as a deck hand/labourer.

The inspectors discovered the dive was being carried out without essential equipment. Mr Taffinder was only using one cylinder of breathing gas, when a secondary supply is mandatory and he only had a mouthpiece demand valve when a full face mask was required.

In addition, there was no standby diver, a lifeline or a line for voice communications, meaning Mr Taffinder would be unable to summon help or receive immediate assistance if he got into difficulty underwater.

The inspectors also discovered Mr Taffinder was only qualified to carry out recreational dives, not commercial ones, and did not possess a valid certificate to prove his medical fitness to dive. There was also no diving plan for the work being carried out, which should have included a risk assessment and a project plan.

The failings were so serious that Mr Dunstan was issued with a Prohibition Notice stopping any further diving until the immediate concerns surrounding the lack of a standby diver were addressed. The inspectors also issued three Improvement Notices setting out other issues that needed to be addressed.

Magistrates were told Mr Dunstan had been issued with a Prohibition Notice in 2004 after he had been found to be carrying out diving operations without a valid certificate of medical fitness to dive. He later complied with this notice.

Speaking after the prosecution, HSE Inspector Bill Chilton said:

"Working underwater can be unforgiving should anything go wrong. Therefore, diving projects need to be planned, the equipment needs to be suitable for the task and the divers and their support team need to be competent.

"Failures in any of these crucial areas create a risk of death or serious injury and Mr Dunstan fell far below the standard required of a diving contractor for managing the risks involved in diving projects. He had been made aware of these important standards in 2004, but four years later he was still not adhering to them; in fact, he was so far below the benchmarks that we had no choice but to prosecute."

Kenneth Dunstan of Saltbox Road, Mylor Bridge, Falmouth pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 6(2)(a), 6(3)(a), 6(3)(b) and 6(3)(d) of the Diving at Work Regulations 1997 and was fined at total of £10,000 (£2,500 for each charge) with costs of £2,000.

For further information on HSE guidance and regulations concerning diving at work, go to www.hse.gov.uk/diving.

Notes to editors

1. 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
2. Regulation 6(2)(a) of the Diving at Work Regulations 1997 states: "The diving contractor shall ensure that, before the commencement of the diving project, a diving project plan is prepared in respect of that project in accordance with regulation 8 and that the plan is thereafter updated as necessary during the continuance of the project."
3. Regulation 6(3)(a) of the Diving at Work Regulations 1997 states: "The diving contractor shall ensure that there are sufficient people with suitable competence to carry out safely and without risk to health both the diving project and any action (including the giving of first-aid) which may be necessary in the event of a reasonably foreseeable emergency connected with the diving project."
4. Regulation 6(3)(b) of the Diving at Work Regulations 1997 states: "The diving contractor shall ensure that suitable and sufficient plant is available whenever needed to carry out safely and without risk to health both the diving project and any action (including the giving of first-aid) which may be necessary in the event of a reasonably foreseeable emergency connected with the diving project."
5. Regulation 6(3)(d) of the Diving at Work Regulations 1997 states: "The diving contractor shall ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that any person taking part in the diving project complies with the requirements and prohibitions imposed on him by or under the relevant statutory provisions and observes the provisions of the diving project plan."

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