Safety manager given suspended sentence for explosion
A health and safety manager who suffered serious burns when a can of solvent exploded has received a suspended prison sentence for putting other workers at risk.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard that Phillip Dutton, 41, was responsible for health and safety at metal distributor, South Essex Stockholders Ltd. On 3 February 2009, he was burning the contents of a skip at the firm’s depot in Vanguard Way, Shoebury in order to compact the waste.
He asked a junior member of staff to fetch a can of surface cleaner so he could pour it into the flames as an accelerant. When he poured the solvent into the fire, it ignited and caused the can to explode and shower him with the substance. He suffered serious burns across his body and spent four months in hospital receiving treatment, including skin grafts.
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council environmental health officer, Dan Jarvis, told SHP there was a culture of adding accelerants when burning waste in skips at the site, and Dutton had not identified the risks associated with adding flammable substances to fires. He said: “As health and safety manager, Mr Dutton should have realised the risks associated with adding flammable solvents to a fire. He put other workers at risk by carrying out this action and by allowing this practice to be carried out at the site. Furthermore, our investigation found that there were inadequate procedures in place to ensure that hazardous substances were stored in a safe place.”
Dutton appeared in court on 15 February and pleaded guilty to breaching s7 of the HSWA 1974. He was given a four-month prison sentence, which has been suspended for two years. He was also ordered to pay £5000 towards costs.
In mitigation, Dutton, who now resides in Cyprus, admitted that he had been foolish to add the solvent to the fire. He urged the judge to be lenient with his sentence as he has already suffered significantly from his own mistake.
His employer, South Essex Stockholders Ltd, was found guilty on 9 December of breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 19
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Safety manager given suspended sentence for explosion
A health and safety manager who suffered serious burns when a can of solvent exploded has received a suspended prison sentence for putting other workers at risk.
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It would be interesting to know at what level Mr Dutton was qualified. It must be assumed he was surely trained and competent rather than having it delegated to him in job description without said qualification or training, otherwise the fine would have been against the company?
Is it not the case that the “Responsible Person” can deligate duties but not “Responsibility”! If the safety manager is incompetant the company is in breach of the MHSWR as well as HSAWA. If there was no risk assessment then the “Responsible Person” is guilty of a breach of MHSWR. If adequate training hadnt been given, If there was a lack of supervision, If the data sheets werent read and understood…………….I could go on. Lets put the blame where it is!!
This bad habit and culture of adding accelerants to burning waste should be avoided in the industry. A safety professional should be able to identify the risk of doing so. It is a good negative lession learnt for others.
How can a health and safety professional do such a thing? Was he chartered? Or just another person who has done a one day course and calls themselves a H & S Manager.
I am seeing more of this daily!!
Almost a Darwin award
Being the Health and Safety officer he should have known better, I canot contain myself when I see the British HSE have actully criminlised the bad discions made by “quliefied” people. I cannot wait for these laws to eventually be passed here in South Africa. We have started (ACHASM) ASSOCIATION OF CONSTRUCTION HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT in South Africa to help speed up the process and to provoke and govern good practice in the OHS industry.
This incident was reported in the local press and according to their reporter Mr Dutton was employed by the company in the belief he held H&S qualifications.It subsequently transpired after investigation that he held no such qualifications.
Was this guy an actual Safety Professional or someone tagged with Health and safety responsibilities who knew nothing about the Management of Health and Safety. If he was a professional then this does not do our profession any good and any organisations he is affiliated with should boot him out for good.
It is unbelieveable that a H&S MAnager would do something so stupid but unforgiveable that he would do it in front of a young person. Young people will try to copy what they see so called sensible adults doing and then they get killed or injured, He got off lightly. This sort of incident does not do the profession any favours.
Clearly, this was “safe” as the H&S manager performed this hazardous task!
I wonder what level of competence Mr. Dutton had achieved and what basis of competence South Essex Stockholders Ltd. used to appoint him.
We have introduced registration for consultants, perhaps it is time to consider compulsory requirements for Safety Officers!!!!
So Mr Dutton was “responsible for health and safety”! No the Managing Director is responsible for compliance with health and safety law, by if necessary ensuring competent advice is provided for etc.etc. There’s no mention of Mr Dutton’s level of competence . “He suffered serious burns across his body and spent four months in hospital receiving treatment, including skin grafts” – Leave the bloke alone he’s more than paid for his ill considered actions and been humiliated enough.
I would suggest that he is not a member of IOSH as he would have brought into disrepute the standing of our fine club and this surely would have been brought to our attention
I have not checked IOSH, IIRSM, or other H&S memberships, so lets not jump to conclusions. At no time did SHP state whether the Health & Safety Manager was a competent “Professional”. I might be totally wrong in my opinion, but it is more likely that Mr. Dutton was as in many similar cases a ‘manager’ tasked with taking on H&S Managerial responsibilities? That said, nothing as the Court found denies the inappropriateness of the actions taken with resulting risks to himself and others.