Tata Steel fined for death at UK plant
Tata Steel has been fined 500,000 pounds over an incident in 2006, involving a worker who fell into a stream of molten liquid at the then Corus-owned plant in Wales and died.
The company was fined 400,000 pounds in relation to Section 2 offence and 100,000 pounds in relation to the Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was also ordered to pay the prosecution’s costs of 57,487 pounds.
The incident happened at the Port Talbot plant, which was owned by Corus at the time and was acquired by Tata Steel in 2010. Tata admitted to health and safety charges in the Swansea Crown Court, and has taken steps to prevent a repeat of the accident.
Jon Ferriman, Tata Steel’s director of Port Talbot Steelworks, told BBC: “Tata Steel deeply regrets Kevin’s death and the terrible loss suffered by his widow Tanya, his two children and other family members and friends”.
The worker, Kevin Downey, was reportedly engulfed in steam and left disoriented during a night shift. As he tried to retrace, he wandered into a channel of molten slag heated to 1500 C. Suffering 85 per cent burns, Downey died in hospital.
