Steel maker fined £1.8 Million

A South-Wales steelmaker has been fined £1.8m and ordered to pay costs of £145,771 after an explosion killed two workers and seriously injured another. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company failed to assess the risks to which its employees were exposed when draining lubrication oil from an accumulator vessel. It was “custom and practice” on the works to manually drain hydraulic lubrication oil from the accumulator, by a procedure referred as a ‘blow down’. However it was found that this “procedure” was not fully understood or consistently carried out, thereby exposing employees to the risk of explosion.