Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel has been fined £2.25m for health and safety failings when a lighting mast was dropped, resulting in serious injuries to an engineering surveyor.
Channel Tunnel Group Limited (CTGL), also known as Eurotunnel, received the fine in April after pleading guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which followed an investigation and prosecution by industry regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
The incident, involving an engineering surveyor, happened on 5 April 2018 at Eurotunnel’s UK terminal of the Channel Tunnel, in Folkestone.
The surveyor was standing at the bottom of one of the lighting masts with the Eurotunnel maintenance team, which was assisting with their inspection.
As a lighting carriage was being winched to the top of the mast (18m in the air), the wires holding it failed and the 115kg unit fell, striking the surveyor, who suffered multiple serious injuries.
The outcome could have been worse had the structure’s fall not been broken by objects lying around the site, the court heard.
CTGL had control of maintenance of the lighting masts, their associated equipment, and the premises in which they were situated.
It was concluded it had breached its duty under Section 4 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, as it had failed to take measures to ensure that the plant at the premises, namely the lighting masts, were safe and without risks to health. Costs will be determined by the judge at a later date
Richard Hines, HM chief inspector of railways, said: “This catalogue of what were entirely preventable maintenance and planning errors led to a truly horrific incident, and my thoughts are with the injured person and their family for the pain and suffering the incident caused, and continues to cause.
“It is quite simply astonishing to learn that there were occasions where lighting carriages were winched up and down by staff who had not been appropriately trained, without a suitable safe system of work, that there was no effective preventative maintenance of the lighting mast and its equipment , and that there was a lack of an appropriate risk assessment for that specific task.
“This case serves as another reminder to industry that regular maintenance of equipment and thorough and appropriate risk-assessments in carrying out works is crucial to help prevent a repeat of such an event,” Hines added.
Image: an image of the dropped lighting mast, as published by the ORR
