An international firm has been fined more than £700,000 after two of its employees died in 2004 following an argon gas leak. The workers collapsed after the gas leaked from a large pressure vessel in a pit at the Bodycote HIP Ltd's Hereford metal refining plant.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who brought the case against the firm, informed the court that the two men were found on the stairs that lead to the pit. The HSE said that on the day of the incident, the pit's oxygen alarm system was switched off, and the ventilation system, which could have saved the men's lives, was not running.
The company admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The HSE said the firm had failed to learn the lessons of a similar double fatality at a plant in California three years earlier. The HSE also said that there was no evidence that one of the men had received any appropriate safety training
In mitigation, the company said that complacency had developed, but claimed there was not a wholesale disregard for health and safety and that since the incident the health and safety deficiencies have been remedied.
HSE inspector Luke Messenger said, "Both these tragic deaths were not only regrettable, but also entirely preventable. Confined spaces can be found in a wide range of workplaces and these deaths should serve as a reminder to all industries of the dangers of this type of work."
