Corporate Manslaughter case – Northern Ireland

Corporate Manslaughter case – Northern Ireland sawmill has been fined £75,000 after pleading guilty to corporate manslaughter.

PL, an experienced fitter and maintenance engineer, was crushed to death by a large automated saw at A Diamond and Son (Timber)’s Coleraine site in September 2012. The company has about 50 employees and has been operating for 75 years.

A resulting joint investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland found that PL was trying to fix the saw when the incident occurred. It was established that the power to the saw had not been isolated, allowing it to move and to crush him. The investigation found the work could have easily been completed while the power was switched off. The investigation also found that the machine’s guards had been modified and that they were regularly bypassed. It also established that the operators did not know how to use the machine in maintenance mode.

Operators were “basically taking their lives in their own hands” when carrying out repairs, said Ciaran Murphy, the prosecuting QC.

A Diamond and Son (Timber)’s said the saw’s manufacturers had not told it about the safe setting, but Antrim Crown Court Judge Desmond Marrinan said he was “staggered” the timber firm had not asked about maintenance settings, in view of the machine’s cost and complexity. In addition to the fine, Judge Marrinan ordered A Diamond and Son (Timber) to pay  £15,832 in costs. He said he accepted the failings were human error rather than the result of putting profit before safety and acknowledged that workers had described the firm as a good employer that cared about its staff.

This is the third corporate manslaughter case to lead to conviction in Northern Ireland since the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act came into force in April 2008:

• 2013 – animal feed company J Murray & Son was fined £100,000 after a worker fell into a meal blending machine. An investigation found the machine’s guards had been removed three years previously
• 2012 – animal feed manufacturer, JMW Farms, was fined £187,500 when an employee was crushed by a bin that slipped from a forklift truck, operated by one of the company’s directors.