Water service at fault for death

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6219258.stm

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The Northern Ireland Water Service has been held responsible for the death of a contractor killed in an explosion at a treatment works last year.

Drew Stevenson, 51, was killed and a colleague seriously injured in the explosion at Carnmoney Water Treatment Works, Eglinton, in June 2005.

A Crown Censure hearing was held on Monday after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive.

It found shortcomings in risk management procedures for the works.

The Water Service accepted the censure and presented information to the hearing on measures put in place since the blast to prevent it happening again.

Censure hearings are held behind closed doors, but a statement from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said their investigation found that the Water Service failed to take adequate steps to prevent the risk of an explosion occurring during construction work near a source of hydrogen gas.

"As a result of this failure, hydrogen gas was ignited, causing a violent explosion in which one contractor was killed and another seriously injured," the statement said.

Crown Censure is an administrative procedure which the HSE follows in circumstances where a case cannot be taken to a court of law because of the Crown immunity from prosecution enjoyed by bodies such as the Water Service.

The Water Service accepted that, but for Crown immunity, there was sufficient evidence for the case to have been taken to court with a reasonable prospect of conviction.

Mr Stevenson, a father of six, from Killen, Castlederg, County Tyrone, was working as a welder on the roof of the waterworks when a storage tank was blasted through the roof and 200ft into the air.

Urgent inspections of nearly 20 other treatment works were carried out by the authorities, after which a government minister said he was confident the set of circumstances which caused the accident would not be repeated at other plants.