Car giant knew about risk ten years before fatal incident
General Motors UK Ltd (GM) has been fined £150,000 following the death of a worker, who was crushed in machinery at its car factory in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.
Liverpool Crown Court was told that 59-year-old Ian Heard had joined the company as an apprentice at the age of 16. He had recently received an award in recognition of his 40-plus years with the firm, which owns Vauxhall.
Mr Heard had been working in the paint unit of the plant on 22 July 2010, when he entered the part of the unit where the trolleys – knows as skids – carry cars through a conveyer system to be spray painted.
The skids had become stuck, and as he freed them, the machine restarted and he was crushed.
The court heard that some time after the machinery was installed in the 1990s a doorway had been created through a wall at the back of the paint unit, which allowed access without cutting the power.
Previously, it had not been possible to reach the conveyor system while it was still operating, as light sensors as the front of the machine would cause it to stop if a worker walked in front of them. There was also an access gate in the fence around the machine, which could only be opened once the power had been switched off.
In 2000, ten years before Mr Heard’s death, a risk assessment identified the potential danger posed by the new door, but no further action was taken by the company. It became standard practice for workers to use the door to free skids when they became stuck.
Sentenced on 14 August, General Motors UK Ltd pleaded guilty to single breaches of section 2(1) of the HSWA 1974 and regulation 11(1) of PUWER 1998, by failing to ensure the safety of employees, and failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, respectively. As well as the £150,000 fine, the company was ordered to pay £19,654 in prosecution costs.
Speaking after the hearing an HSE inspector said: “Ian Heard was a dedicated and loyal worker at Vauxhall for more than 40 years, but, sadly, he lost his life because of the company’s safety failings.”
When commenting on the company’s failure to act on the potential danger posed by the new door, the inspector added: “There was absolutely no point in Vauxhall carrying out a risk assessment into the dangers posed by the machine if it wasn’t going to act on the recommendations.”
General Motors cooperated fully with the investigation and has now installed a new safety system on the door, which prevents it from being opened unless power to the machine has been cut.
