Daily CSR
Daily CSR

Daily CSR
Daily news about corporate social responsibility, ethics and sustainability

An Engineer Of National Grid Gas Trapped In A ‘Ruptured Gas Main’ Invited A ‘£1 Million’ Fine To The Company



02/08/2016

National Grid Gas is subject to a fine of “£1 million” due to a serious accident of gas leakage whereby one of its engineer could have lost his life.


Dailycsr.com – 08 February 2016 – The total amount of safety fines ordered as a penalty to the “gas distribution firm” within seven weeks’ period accumulated to “£3 million”, informs the HSE.
 
In the month of December 2015, the firm was subjected to pay an amount of “£2 million” following the death of a boy who drowned himself in a canal, while he was crossing it and accidentally “fell off a pipeline”.
 
Moreover, the latest issue that involves heavy fine deals with an incident that took place in the month of June 2014. During that very period “National Grid Gas” was in supervision charge for a gas main’s repairs work. An engineer on duty was then fixing a leak that was reported “on Ashby Road in Scunthorpe”. While, he was busy doing his job, he suddenly got caught midst “two gas pipes” and coincidentally, the pressure of the “escaping gas increased” resulting in the pipeline to burst.
 
Moreover, the debris and the dust clouds at the accident scene hampered the rescue mission of the fire service. Consequently, they had to try for “an hour” before they could rescue the victim. It took almost three hours to contain the situation and bring the gas leakage under control, whereby the area surrounding the accident spot on the “Ashby Road” was closed down and evacuated for safety measures. However, thanks to the “breathing apparatus”, the worker got out alive from this life threatening explosion.
 
On the 25th of January 2016, Sheffield Crown Court received the information that the “National Grid” had failed to comply with “its own gas escape procedures” although after the incident it conducted “suitable risk assessments” and communicated the same with the contractors. Eventually, National Grid properly “managed the handover of key personnel”.
 
Likewise, the company was found guilty of breaching the “Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act”. Additionally, it was also fined an amount of “£26,296”. According to the HSE inspector, Ian Redshaw, this incident should act like a warning to the companies involved in “hazardous work”, while he stressed:
“You can have all the written policies in place but it you do not follow them, if you do not carry out the risk assessments for the task, people could die”.







References:
http://www.healthandsafetyatwork.com/