£2 fine for work death prompts call for change in law

Christopher Knoop, 50, of Anfield, Liverpool died in December 2005 when a fire ripped through North West Aerosols Ltd in Aintree after a series of blasts. Three other employees were also injured in the fire. This week the company was found guilty of breaching two health and safety laws at Liverpool Crown Court.

North West Aerosols Ltd was fined just £2 and ordered to pay £1 in costs because it had since gone into voluntary liquidation. Judge Graham Morrow said the fine would have been around £250,000 had it been trading normally. No one from the businesses attended court to defend the case.

Campaign group Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) claimed the case highlighted the "injustice" of current health and safety law and enforcement.

A FACK spokesperson said: "We feel that if directors had positive legal duties for health and safety then the individual directors of this company could have been held to account in court.

"It is currently lawful for a company charged with breaking health and safety law, even where this results in death and severe injury, to be put into liquidation and for the individual directors to walk away escaping any charges at all.

"In this case, that led to the absurd situation of such a company, NW Aerosols, being fined £2. It would be laughable if it were not so tragic, so wrong, and so unlikely to send out the right message to other companies and directors failing to comply with health and safety law and putting all their workers at risk."

Clear procedures

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said it was important that other employers learned from the failings highlighted in the case.

Inspector Keith Morris said: "HSE investigations concluded the company had not adopted good industry practice for the change-over of propellants, and had not provided self-sealing quick-release coupling or flame-retardant clothing for all the maintenance staff.

"There was no specific procedure for the changeover of propellants in the gashouses, and there were significant errors in the procedures for start-up and shutdown. On the day of the incident, a trainee engineer had been delegated to start up the production line.

"The sad circumstances of this incident should remind the whole chemical industry to ensure they have clear and accurate procedures that cover all aspects of plant operation.

"All employees must be properly trained and supervised for their work. Had the company done this then Chris Knoop would not have died and Gary Brine, Kevin Armstrong and Graham Ryder, would not have been seriously injured."