Last updated 13:03, Friday, 21 November 2008

SELLAFIELD Ltd and demolition contractor P C Richardson & Co. (Middlesbrough) Ltd were fined yesterday at Carlisle Crown Court following the death of Richardson employee Neil Cannon on January 9 2003. The charges were brought by the Health and Safety Executive.

The 36-year-old steeplejack fell 350ft to his death as he worked on the decommissioning of the Windscale pile chimney.

Mr Cannon, of Cleator, near Whitehaven, was removing steelwork inside the chimney when he fell and suffered fatal injuries.

Sellafield Ltd, then operating under the name of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, was fined £150,000 for a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) etc, Act 1974 in that it failed to conduct its undertaking in such a way as to ensure that persons not in its employment, but who were affected by it, were not exposed to risks to their safety. The company pleaded guilty and was also ordered to pay £50,500 costs.

PC Richardson & Co (Middlesbrough) was fined £100,000 for a breach of Section 2(1) of the HSW Act in that it failed to conduct its undertaking in such a way as to ensure that its employees were not exposed to risks to their safety. They were also ordered to pay £25,000 costs.

HSE principal inspector Mark Cottriall says: “This tragic accident need never have happened. A safe working method had been prepared for removing the steelwork in the chimney. If this had been followed, Mr Cannon would not have had to leave the safety of the working platform that had been built inside the chimney. As often happens on construction projects, however, the proposed method was changed as the work progressed.

“These changes took place over a period of time and resulted in workers, including Mr Cannon, having to work on an unprotected ledge inside the chimney approximately 95 metres above ground level.

“At the time of the accident, Mr Cannon was trying to remove a girder from the ledge. The girder tipped upwards, sliced through Mr Cannon’s safety lanyard, and caused him to fall through the gap between the ledge and the working platform.

“Ongoing monitoring of the work in progress should have identified the changes and the increased risk.

“If this had been done it is almost certain that a way could have been found to do the work without leaving the safety of the platform.

“As this case sadly illustrates, any changes to planned work methods must be identified and properly assessed to ensure that they are safe.”

Sellafield Ltd was the client and principal contractor while P C Richardson & Co. was the decommissioning and demolition sub-contractor.

Managing director of Sellafield Barry Snelson said: “No words of mine can heal the wounds – wounds that will last a lifetime – suffered by anyone whose life was touched by Neil.

“We owe it to Neil to work tirelessly together to ensure that his death is the last ever to occur on the Sellafield site.”