Friday, February 08, 2008

Risk Assessment, safety rules, Director jailed

Following the death of a 28-year-old man at a concrete plant in 2005, Area manager Roy William Burrows, 48, and managing director Timothy Edward Dighton, 45, were both charged with manslaughter. Both men had admitted the offence at a hearing on Monday, June 11 2007. Dighton also admitted a number of breaches of Health and Safety regulations.

 

Burrows was sentenced to 9 months in prison and Dighton was sentenced to 12 months.

 

The Concrete Company was found liable for costs of £89,000 and also fined £75,000.

 

Christopher Meachen a father of three - died after being fatally injured at the Costessey branch of The Concrete Company on the Longwater Industrial Estate on Tuesday, November 7, 2005.

 

Mr. Meachen, had worked for the company since August 2004 as a concrete batcher. He died after becoming caught in an unguarded conveyer carrying aggregate and sand up to the hoppers where the cement is manufactured.

 

Mr. Meachen's body was discovered just after 9am. Sadly he was pronounced dead at the scene.  A post mortem found that he had died from multiple injuries.
 
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death was carried out by detectives from Norwich CID and inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive.

 

A wide-ranging investigation had been carried out over last two years of all sites of The Concrete Company.

 

Detective Inspector Richard Graveling said: "We treated this incident as a major crime from the start, making an immediate arrest on the morning Mr. Meachen's body was discovered.

Christopher Meachen had gone to work on November 7 and, through no fault of his own, he met with a tragic death. It is clear that, had the company made remedial safeguards around the conveyer, Mr. Meachen would be with us today. The investigation has shown that they took a cavalier attitude towards health and safety issues. This incident has been a complete tragedy for this young man's fiancé, his young children and his close family. I hope they are able to draw some comfort from the fact that someone has been brought to book for what happened."

 

He added: "This case shows that we have developed expertise at dealing with these cases and we can and will carry out robust and thorough investigations in partnership with the HSE to bring both companies and individuals who fail to protect their employees to book.”

Back