Tate and Lyle Industries Ltd has been fined £270,000, with costs of £90,000, after the death of a contractor working on one of its ships. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the company, who pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The contractor died while unloading raw sugar from a ship at the company's sugar refinery at Factory Road, Silvertown, Newham in March 2004. The worker was inside a bulldozer that fell from a crane as it was being lowered into the hold of a ship. The lifting lug, connecting the lifting chain to the crane, snapped and dropped the bulldozer.
HSE's investigation identified a series of failures in Tate and Lyle's management of its operations at the dock. These included a failure to:
HSE Inspector John Crookes said, "In failing to identify and address these inadequacies before they led to the death of a worker, Tate and Lyle's performance fell well below what could be reasonably expected of them. Above all, however, this is a human tragedy. This terrible accident should never have been allowed to happen."
