Risk, Health and Safety Information

Mersey shipbuilding firm sentenced over welder death

A Merseyside shipbuilding firm has been fined £120,000 over the death of a welder who became trapped while driving a forklift truck.

Robert Dunroe suffered life-threatening injuries while using the truck to transport heavy welding equipment at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead on 18 August 2010. He died in hospital four days later.

The forklift truck Mr Dunroe was driving when he became trapped

His employer, Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found he had been able to drive the forklift despite not having any training.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the 62-year-old from Wirral had become crushed between the truck and a lifting beam used on a crane at the Campeltown Road plant. Another employee ran over to the vehicle and reversed it, releasing Mr Dunroe, but he died from his injuries.

The court was told that keys were routinely left in the ignition of forklifts, and that Mr Dunroe had driven a truck on several occasions without being challenged about his lack of training. No procedures were in place to inform employees who was and who was not authorised to drive the trucks.

Mr Dunroe's widow, Jane, said:

"Rob meant everything to me. We'd been together since we were 15 and we did everything together. He was just my life.

"I'd just retired and we were looking forward to spending more time together. Our friends are couples and I can't go out with them any more, as it just doesn't feel right.

"And I can't go to the places Rob and I used to go together. That feels wrong too."

Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Ltd admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of its employees. The company, which has around 500 employees, was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay £12,294 in prosecution costs on 22 March 2012.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Richard Clarke said:

"A company the size of Cammell Laird should have known better than to have allowed keys to be routinely left in forklift trucks, making driving a truck the easy option for employees wanting to transport heavy equipment.

"Mr Dunroe may well have thought he was doing his employer a favour by moving the welding equipment as quickly as possible, but instead he has ended up losing his life.

"The dangers of forklift trucks are well known in the manufacturing industry and Cammell Laird has since introduced new procedures to ensure keys are safely locked away, and that a list is available of trained drivers.

"If these procedures had been in place before Mr Dunroe's death then he may well have still been alive today."

On average, there are eight deaths and 1,500 injuries reported every year as a result of incidents involving forklift trucks