11.01.16
Carillion fined £200,000 over Lincolnshire rail worker death
Carillion Construction Ltd has been handed a £200,000 fine and ordered to pay over £36,000 in costs by the rail regulator for breaching health and safety laws, which led to the death of a railway worker.
On 4 December 2012, a train struck and fatally injured self-employed track worker Scott Dobson, who was acting as a controller of site safety (COSS) near Saxilby, Lincolnshire.
In 2013, the RAIB found that he was probably distracted by the noise and work being undertaken on the line, and stepped backwards into the path of the train as it crossed the work site.
Dobson, 26, from Doncaster, had not implemented a Safe System of Work – a formal requirement for work being undertaken on Network Rail infrastructure – and had never been subjected to disciplinary proceedings or other action after two previous safety incidents in the two months before his death.
The agency that hired him, SkyBlue, did not implement any effective formal review of his performance, the original RAIB investigation found, and parent company Carillion did not identify that an effective performance review regime was absent.
As part of its statutory duties, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) investigated the case and found a number of failings in Carillion’s planning and management of the work.
According to the regulator, only one of the two railway lines had been blocked while maintenance was being carried out, despite the fact that both lines should have been closed to minimise the possibility of workers being struck by passing trains.
Carillion pleaded guilty at Lincolnshire Magistrates’ Court today (11 January) to a single charge of failing to discharge a duty under the 1974 Health and Safety Work Act.
Ian Prosser, HM chief inspector of railways, said: “This accident was wholly avoidable, had Carillion Construction Ltd followed health and safety rules set out for the railways. Our sympathies are with Mr Dobson’s family.
“The safety of workers and passengers is a top priority for the regulator, which is why ORR inspectors are out on the railway daily, monitoring to ensure safety isn’t compromised.”
During the court hearing, Carillion issued an “unreserved apology” to Dobson’s family and said it had learned lessons from the incident and introduced measures to tighten safety procedures.
(Top image credit: RAIB)