Cleveland Potash Ltd (CPL) has been fined £3.6 million after two electricians suffered severe burns in separate incidents at Boulby Mine in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire.
GUILTY PLEA
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also ordered the company’s owners to pay costs of £185,000.
CPL, now a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals Ltd, extracts organic fertiliser polyhalite.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) and two counts of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
INDUCED COMA
On 3 August, Teesside Crown Court heard that on the 3 August 2016 a contract electrician received serious burns from an 11,000-volt electrical system.
“He unknowingly had placed a vacuum cleaner nozzle into a live electrical chamber,” said the HSE in a statement.
“He had to be air lifted to Newcastle hospital specialist burns unit, where he was placed in an induced coma for 10 days.”
The BBC reported at the time that “the first electrician suffered ‘very severe burns’ to 20% of his body focused on his head, face, arms and hands and his ‘ongoing disfigurement, pain and disability is likely to be permanent’.”
SERIOUS BURNS
On the 12 February 2019, a second electrical contractor made contact with a live conductor on a 415-volt electrical system during electrical testing works.
He received serious burns and was hospitalised for six days.
FAILURES
The HSE added it found deficiencies from the mine owner in risk assessment, planning of works, and shortfalls in providing warnings about which parts of the electrical systems the two electricians were working on remained live.
HSE specialist regulatory principal inspector Paul Bradley said that the two serious electrical incidents had been easily preventable.
“CPL should have had a heightened awareness of electrical risks following the first incident in 2016, however failures to apply learnings and to adequately control risks resulted in the 2019 incident.
“Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise risks when working on electrical systems.
“Both these incidents were preventable if long established electrical safety practices been applied.”
*Since 2000, there have been several incidents at the mine including two fatalities.