Salford firm sentenced over canal boat death

Date:

21 September 2012

A Salford firm has been fined £50,000 over the death of a canal boat owner at a dry dock on the Bridgewater Canal.

Richard Ferris's canal boat at Worsley Dry Docks

Richard Ferris - a father of four and grandfather of nine - suffered critical injuries after he slipped on a plank and fell head first to the concrete floor below at The Boatyard in Worsley on 26 May 2010. He died in hospital later that day.

The owner of the site, Worsley Dry Docks Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the wooden board leading to his boat had not been secured.

Manchester Crown Court heard today (21 September 2012) that the 61-year-old and his wife had taken their narrow boat to the dry dock to carry out maintenance work to the underneath while it was out of the water.

Mr Ferris was attempting to cross from his boat to the side of the dock and as he stepped onto the plank, known as a youngmans board, it began to move. He lost his balance and fell nearly two and a half metres to the floor of the dry dock.

The emergency services were called to the scene but he had suffered major head injuries and died as a result.

A HSE investigation found Worsley Dry Docks had failed to provide suitable access to users of the dry docks to allow them to move safely to and from their boats. The company has since ensured all of the planks at the dry dock have hand rails, and that they are properly secured before being used.

Worsley Dry Docks Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 after it failed to ensure Mr Ferris's safety. The company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £15,185 in prosecution costs.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Ferris's widow, Pat, said:

Richard Ferris

"Richard was a loving husband, father and grandfather, and also my soul mate.

"He died as the result of the actions, or rather inactions, of Worsley Dry Docks Ltd. As a result, I have lost my husband, my home, and my whole way of life. Our children have lost a father, a confidant, and an advisor.

"My greatest wish is that no one else has to be injured or die in any dry dock in the future, and no one has to go through what my family and I have."

Philip Strickland, the investigating inspector at HSE, added:

"Richard Ferris was experienced in boating and from time to time had piloted pleasure cruisers along the Manchester Ship Canal.

"But when he and his wife took their canal boat to the dry dock to carry out maintenance work, they relied on the owner of the dock to make sure they could do this safely.

"Having an unsecured board was a wholly inadequate way of accessing boats at the dry dock, given boat owners regularly used it to walk above a concrete pit several metres below.

"If a secured gangplank with a handrail had been in place at the time Mr Ferris was using the dock then his life could have been saved."

The latest figures show that 38 people died as a result of a fall in a workplace in Great Britain in 2010/11, and more than 4,000 suffered a major injury. Information on preventing falls is available at www.hse.gov.uk/falls.

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. 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."

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