A Welsh steel company, CMC UK Ltd, has admitted safety failings relating to the death of warehouse operator Mark Walker, 37, who was killed when he was crushed by a large steel girder in June 2012.
The company, based at Ocean Way, Cardiff, entered a guilty plea to the charge at Cardiff Crown Court on 18 November.
The company admitted failing to ensure a safe working system when Mr Walker was involved in using a hoist chain to split 16-metre long steel columns.
Following the tragedy an inquest into his death heard no-one witnessed the accident, which occurred while he was on a night shift. A jury at the inquest returned a verdict that Mr Walker had “placed himself in a position of entrapment and was subsequently crushed by a falling steel column resulting in an accidental death”.
Coroner Mary Hassell had outlined a number of potential reasons for the loss of life, including the tight space where the metal bundles were being split, the type of crane he had been using and Mr Walker seemingly putting himself in a dangerous entrapment area.
Despite the guilty plea the company did not agree with all claims in the prosecution case.
The case, brought by HSE, has been adjourned until March next year.
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Hi Lauren
I regularly read the articles in SHP to improve my own knowledge and find the legal cases an interesting topic. I was wondering where you tend to get most of your article information from ?, (naturally, I respect the confidentiality aspects) I get information from various websites etc, as do most H&S professionals I suspect, but I’m not too sure on where I can research current court cases / determine how precedent may be being affected etc, would it be possible to offer some advice on this topic?
Kind Regards
Hello Wayne,
Thanks for your comment. In terms of the legal cases SHP gets its information from a range of press offices and regional news networks, as well as local, regional and national press and local authorities. The majority of the cases are brought by the HSE, so information is often directly from the Executive, and some cases come from The Office of Rail Regulation.
Our aim is to bring the most important cases into one place to save health and safety professionals the time in doing it themselves, as well as selecting key cases that represent different industries, different sizes of companies and different risks.
There are information providers, such as Barbour-EHS, who can provide you with further information as well as detailed and summarised case law. There are also many RSS feeds which can keep you current. I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Lauren