Consultants fined £750k after fatal crash
Renown Consultants have been fined £450,000 and ordered to pay £300,000 in costs for failing to ensure the safety of its drivers.
Zac Payne and Michael Morris died on 19 June 2013 when Payne fell asleep at the wheel of a work van, when they were driving back to Doncaster after a night shift in Stevenage. Their vehicle hit a truck parked in a layby on the A1 and caught fire. Both men died at the scene.
The day before, Payne left Doncaster at 4.30am and drove to Alnmouth, Northumberland, arriving at 7.30am to carry out work on a railway. However, the work did not take place, so at midday Payne drove back to Renown’s Doncaster depot, arriving at 3pm. On his way, he was asked to take on an overnight railway welding job in Stevenage. Payne and Morris set off together from the depot at 7.18pm arriving at the site at 9.47pm.
The two men then carried out their welding jobs from 11.15pm leaving the site once they had finished at 3.40am. The crash occurred at around 5.30am as Payne was driving back to Doncaster.
The police investigation was handed over to the Office of Rail and Road in 2014, which found serious and systemic failings to manage fatigue.
Renown were found guilty at Nottingham Crown Court. In sentencing, Judge Goldsmark explained that while fleet safety policies were in place, operations managers paid "lip service" to them. Despite the company’s insurance policy stating only over 25s could drive their vehicles, it was "common practice" for them to drive to and from jobs. Senior operations managers at the Doncaster depot would regularly "cut corners", with "expediency" often overriding known safety policies, and there was a "willful blindness", when it came to the management of fatigue, driver time and distances to and from jobs.
The judge added that the breaches of health and safety legislation were "systemic and long-lasting".
The firm, which employs 120 staff, had never previously been subject to any health and safety failings. Following the accident, fleet policies and procedures have been reviewed and updated and staff facilities have been developed, with the company moving into a new depot in Doncaster in 2014, which allows the use of vehicles to be better monitored. Speed limiters have also been fitted to Renown’s vehicles since 2015 and checks of telematics data are now carried out daily.
