Steel giants Corus UK Ltd have been ordered to pay more than £3 million for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at a factory where a massive explosion killed three workers and injured 12 others. The firm admitted at Swansea Crown Court of failing to ensure worker safety at its Port Talbot plant and were fined £1,330,000, with costs of £1,744,474. The explosion in November 2001 destroyed blast furnace five, lifting it off its base and blasting out 200 tonnes of steel slag and hot gasses. Corus admitted civil liability a year after the explosion, and were due to stand trial until they entered a guilty plea at the last minute.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed how expert advice, which could have averted the tragedy had been ignored. The firm were blamed for long-standing faults in company procedures and a pattern of failure and mismanagement to react to warnings of the dangers faced by employees. High Court judge Mr Justice Lloyd Jones launched a scathing attack on the company as he passed sentence, stating their safety record was "very poor" and "casual". He listed a catalogue of health and safety breaches that Corus had been convicted of, including an incident in 2000 at their Llanwern steelworks where water mixed with molten metal had caused an explosion.
Corus said they were striving to improve safety in their plants and maintained that an explosion of the type and magnitude that occurred was neither foreseen nor was it foreseeable.
