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July 8, 2013

Judge slates firm for shambolic safety

A specialist engineering company has been fined £300,000 after an HSE investigation into a fatality uncovered repeated failings that had put many employees at risk of death, or injury for several years.

Graham Britten, 46, was carrying out maintenance on 4 November 2009 in a vacuum casting furnace at AETC Ltd, in Yeadon, Leeds. The firm manufactures products for the aerospace and power-generation industries and is part of American company, PCC Airfoils.

The maintenance fitter and a colleague had gone to fix a fault after the main isolation valve had jammed part-way while closing. The furnace comprises two chambers separated by the large sliding isolation valve.

Mr Britten was standing on the rising table within the lower furnace chamber inspecting the valve when it suddenly closed. When the valve jammed, air pressure continued to build up in the cylinder that drives the valve. This meant that when the jam was cleared, the stored energy caused the valve to close rapidly, fatally crushing Mr Britten.

His colleague and the machine operator raised the alarm but Mr Britten was pronounced dead at the scene.

The subsequent HSE investigation established that AETC did not have an effective isolation procedure for maintenance work on the furnace, and had failed to train and supervise maintenance staff adequately. It had also failed to act for several years on repeated recommendations from the US-based corporate health and safety manager.

The lack of a consistent, monitored isolation policy meant there were no effective procedures in place to prevent Mr Britten entering the chamber without first isolating the equipment and releasing stored energy, Leeds Crown Court heard. In addition, the furnace control systems, intended to protect operators during routine cleaning within the furnace chambers, were inadequate and exposed operators to unnecessary risk.

Arguing that Mr Britten was an experienced and trained maintenance fitter, AETC said he was competent to assess when it was safe to enter the furnace.

The HSE did not accept this, contending that the machine was a complex piece of kit, with multiple power sources and an electronic software-control system. A Prohibition Notice, which was served on the company in relation to intervention work in the furnace, required 11 separate lockouts to isolate the machine — an indication of its complexity.

Appearing at Leeds Crown Court on 5 July, AETC Ltd was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay £77,500 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974.

Sentencing the firm, Judge T Bayliss QC said: “At the time of the accident there was no robust system in place to ensure safety during maintenance. It was left to the discretion of the fitters. It was, I’m sorry to say, a shambles.”

After sentencing, HSE inspector Dr Angus Robbins said: “There were two issues here. Firstly, the furnace operators routinely climbed into the furnace to clean, thinking that when the furnace doors were open the valve could not move. This was not the case, and they were continually at risk.

“Secondly, there was no safe system for maintenance work. There were no isolation procedures and, as a result, the fitters developed their own methods of working.”

Concluded the inspector: “Safe isolation procedures with training, supervision and monitoring would have prevented Mr Britten’s needless death.”

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