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Deaths in 2001 Deaths in 2006
Deaths in 2001
Deaths in 2002 No details
of deaths available Click on the names below for further case details
No details of deaths available No details of deaths available Click on the names below for further case details
Click on the names below for further case details
Click on the names below for further case details
FURTHER DETAILS OF DEATHS John Lane
Dr John
Lane, a young chemist working at Britain's most advanced toxic waste
plant in Newport, died after being overcome by hydrogen sulphide fumes
leaking from a tank. The court
heard how 28-year-old Dr Lane had only worked at the plant for seven weeks
when he was killed by the lethal fumes in July 2001. A lid on the tank
which should have contained the fumes was 'virtually non-existent',
the court was told. John had told his father that most of the short
time he worked at the plant he was concerned over safety issues. The Prosecutor
told the court, 'In the laboratory there was a lack of expertise
- he would often get phone calls even when not on duty asking for advice.
He felt vulnerable after 5pm when no managers or experienced people were
at the site.' In sentencing, the judge said that the company showed profits of £287,000 in 1999, £502,000 in 2000 and £193,000 in 2001. The two directors of the company at the time drew salaries together worth £218,000 in 2001. He said that the were deficiencies in the instruction and training of employees and no evidence that Dr Lane received any specific training. The HSE said after the case, 'The death was caused by appallingly bad management of safety by the company.' The inquest was held at Gwent Coroner’s Court on 18 December 2001. A verdict of Death by Misadventure was returned.
Ernest Berry
Ernest, a maintainence fitter with a plant hire firm, died when the bucket of a Skid Steer Loader, which he and a female collegue were working with, came crashing down on him. The companany was fined £180,000 for breaches of health and safety law. The court heard that Ernest had gone to the aid of a female work colleague who was unable to control the equipment and, like him was untrained and unqualified to operate the machine. Andrew Hopper QC, prosecuting, said that defects of the machine meant that it acted in an erratic manner. He said that the loader was dangerously unsafe because of insufficient maintenance. An important safety feature, which would have meant the bucket springing back into position, had failed and instead slammed to the floor giving Ernest no time to escape. He said that the comnpany failed to provide adequate training for the 500 employees working at the plant at the time. He also said that there was inadequate maintenance of equipment because of a culture of saving money at the company which had a 38 million pound a year turnover. The inquest was held at Gwent Coroner’s Court on 18 December 2001. A verdict of Death by Misadventure was returned.
Daniel Dennis
Dennis, a roofer, died when he fell through a skylight in the roof of a Matalan store at the Cwmbran Retail Park, Torfan, Gwent. Daniel had just started his first job with the roofing company and had not received any safety training or instruction on working at heights. His father had even contacted Roy Clarke who traded as North Eastern Roofing to warn him about his lack of training and experience. He was able to walk across part of the roof to access materials and the skylight, which was not cordoned off, gave way under his weight causing him to fall approximately 28ft (9m) to the floor below. The inquest was held at Gwent Coroner’s Court in Newport on 15 March 2005. The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in less than 10 minutes. Despite the inquest verdict the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to bring charges of gross negligence manslaughter against Daniel’s employer. Daniel’s father, Peter Dennis, commented, 'The CPS failed to bring charges which left us flabbergasted. Our son was killed within days of starting work, but there was no accountability for his employer. How is that justice? We want to ensure that other families never go through what we have.' Allan Garley, regional secretary of the GMB, said in April 2006, 'The death of a 17-year-old boy in his first week at work is an absolute tragedy. The GMB isn't after vengeance, but we want employers who kill workers to be properly held to account.' In December 2006 Lord Justice Waller in the High Court judge ruled the matter should be referred back to the CPS. Giving his ruling on 29 December Lord Justice Waller said there were 'failures' over factors which influenced the CPS not to prosecute. The judge said a solicitor acting for the CPS did not take into account the 'seriousness of a failure to give proper instruction not to go on the roof prior to induction or proper instruction'. He also said the CPS had not taken sufficient account of the Newport inquest jury's unlawful killing verdict in March last year. The judge said the matter should be referred back to the CPS and that it was possible that a different decision could be made when these factors are taken into consideration but the the final decision would still rest with the CPS. After the ruling Peter Dennis said, 'This decision gives us some hope this new year that justice for Daniel will finally be achieved.' Mick Antoniw, one of the solicitor's acting for Daniel's family, said, 'This is a landmark ruling as it's only the second case where the courts have interfered in a workplace death. We now expect the CPS to review and overhaul the way they consider the evidence in cases involving workplace deaths.' In October 2007 Gwent Crown Prosecution Service reversed its decision and said it would now prosecute Roy Clarke the owner of North Eastern Roofing. Mick Antoniw said, 'There are lessons to learn. In future, it’s essential for the CPS to become more proactive and to take a greater interest in workplace fatalities and develop greater expertise in health and safety law.' Roy Clarke entered no plea when he appeared before Cwmbran magistrates charged with Daniel's manslaughter. He was due before Newport Crown Court on November 22 2007. On the eve of the trial in April 2008 Roy Clark admitted the manslaughter charge. On 6 May 2008 at Swansea Crown Court Clark was jailed for 10 months. Trial judge Mr Justice John Griffith Williams pointed out Clark had twice been warned by the Health and Safety Executive before Daniel’s death. The first time was in 1997 when Clark’s employees working on a roof were found to be dangerously close to skylights. The second was in 1999 when some of his workers were seen standing too close to the edge of a building. As well as being jailed yesterday, he was also ordered to pay £17,900 in costs. The court heard Clark and his wife Janet, also one of his employees, earned £70,000 from the firm in 2007. The judge told Clark, 'Your admitted breach of your duty of care to Daniel Dennis led to the loss of a young life so full of promise. As his mother so movingly said in her victim impact statement, he was a 17-year-old whose enthusiasm for life was breathtaking and he filled the room with jokes and a wicked sense of humour. 'One in five construction deaths are due to falls from height and as a man with 32 years experience in the industry the dangers should have been only too obvious to you.' After the conviction Daniel’s father said, 'This was not revenge. There is no way in my mind that Roy Clark maliciously went out to kill my son but he had a duty of care to look after him and make sure he was safe.
John Doran
John, a workman with Bristol based construction firm M J O'Connor, climbed down into a trench he and his collegues had been digging when the sides collapsed burying him under six feet of mud. Thirty firemen, with the police and emergency services standing by, managed to extricate him after four hours at which time he was declared dead. The inquest was held at Gwent Coroner’s Court on 13 March 2006 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned. Andrew Thomas
Andrew was crushed to death while delivering plasterboard to an address in Caldercott, South Wales. The inquest was held at Gwent Coroner’s Court on 16 March 2005 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned. David Price
David, a foreman engineer, was replacing a cylinder on powerful machinery that coils steel at the Alpha Steel plant, when he became trapped in the machinery and died at the scene. David got trapped from the waist down under a metal 'table' weighing over a ton that guides sheet metal. The inquest was held at Gwent Coroner’s Court on 26 February 2004 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Steve Curry said the coiler had been disconnected from electric and hydraulic power. The jury heard that it was the first occasion David had changed cylinders on a machine of this type. They were also told that a jack and timber pieces used to support parts of the machine were not in use at the time of the fatal incident. Justin Parry-Bevan
Justin was crushed to death when a flat-bed lorry and a tipper truck slid down a hill in the village of Hollybush, near Tredegar. Justin was unloading a mini excavator from the flat bed lorry with his older brother Simon. Justin was rushed to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny but later died from internal bleeding. The inquest was held at Gwent Coroner’s Court on 15 April 2004 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned. Simon Bevan had borrowed the lorry but unbeknown to him it had defective brakes - while the trailer had no brakes at all. The only working brake was the handbrake on the rear axle of the lorry 'I took my eyes off Justin and that is when it must have happened and Justin got squashed,' his father Howard told the inquest. 'The lorry tipped over and jack-knifed with the trailer behind it,' he said. 'Justin walked up the hill a couple of yards holding his stomach and collapsed.' Department of Transport vehicle examiner Christopher Ennea descried the lorry as 'unroadworthy'. 'Its brakes were below the minimum requirement. It resulted in the vehicle and trailer combination becoming dangerous when parked on any slope,' he said. Police forensic collision investigator PC Christopher Goddard described it as a 'ticking bomb'. 'The only working brake was the handbrake on the rear axle of the lorry,' he said. Coroner David Bowen described it was a 'tragic and unnecessary' death. 'There is no evidence Simon knew the brakes on the lorry were defective but he should have known the trailer had no brakes at all,' he said. 'Even if not it would be a basic safety measure to unload the JCB on a level surface or chock the wheels. Any one of these measures would have prevented this tragic and unnecessary death,' he added.
Craig Rees
Craig, a labourer at a pumping station in Usk, south Wales, died instantaneously when joints on a new meter installation gave way and the water main burst open as he tried to stop what until that moment had been small leaks in a chamber below ground level. Jeffrey Reed, site agent for the company employing Craig, Lewis Construction of Pontyclun, together with Colin Hughes and Gary Sanford, both production managers with United Utilities which operated the site for Welsh Water, were later accused of causing his death by negligence. All three denied a charge of manslaughter in a trial at Cardiff Crown Court which began on 24 February 2009. On March 27 2009 Winston Roddick QC announced that the prosecution, having heard the quality of the evidence as it emerged from witnesses, did not think a conviction should follow. He told the jury, 'I have given careful consideration to my duty as an officer of justice and careful consideration to the views of the police and especially the views of the family, who have been consulted closely. 'It cannot be fair to ask you to determine that these men should have set a standard which was higher that that normally accepted within the industry at the time. The Crown has come to the conclusion it cannot ask you to find to a criminal standard that these defendants were grossly negligent.' The decision followed evidence earlier in the trial from an expert witness about a warning light system at the Prioress Mill station operated when a main is being refilled with water having been drained for work to be carried out. Mr Justice Pitchford, 'I am probably not alone, having listened to the evidence over many days, in reaching at least a provisional view that those who were recommissioning the main on May 26, 2006 did not have at the forefront of their minds an obvious risk of serious injury or death created by a failure to appreciate what had now become clear. 'I have no doubt those in senior management will have this experience well in mind when faced with a similar situation in the future.' He told the jurors, who he directed to return not guilty verdicts against all three men, 'Listening to the evidence of those who were present at the time of Craig's death, we cannot have been unaffected by the desperate experience they faced nor by the horror of the death he suffered. 'But this trial is neither an exercise in retribution nor is it a manner of judging compensation for that death. You will have heard of the type of cases which are described as criminal neglect in the context of children and there has to be a similar standard here.' He said the prosecution, to succeed, would have to prove those present had a duty to Craig and that they not only fell below what was expected of them but that their lack of care was so bad that it would be labelled a crime. He went on, 'The prosecution has obviously overnight been reviewing its position and has decided, in consultation with the family of Craig, that it cannot ask you to convict any one of these men with a criminal offence.' Any inquest would be held at Gwent Coroner’s Court.
Martyn Tamlyn
Martyn was working at the Sims’ fridge recycling plant at Alexandra Docks when the forklift truck he was driving overturned. The inquest was held at Gwent Coroner’s Court in January 2009 when a verdict of 'Misadventure' was returned. The inquest jury heard how Martyn was on a night shift at the plant when he was fatally injured. A work colleague, Mark Leonard Kyle, said that towards the end of the shift at 5.45am Martyn, who was acting supervisor, began assisting with the unloadin g of fridges and freezers from storage. 'Martin and I worked together briefly before I went inside to sign off some paperwork when I was alerted to the accident by a colleague. The truck was on its side and I could see Martin in the cab,' said Mr Kyle. The forklift truck Martyn was driving overturned as he attempted to make a sharp right hand turn. An inspector for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Colin Mew showed jurors clips of CCTV footage from the 12-hour shift. Mr Mew concluded that Martyn’s truck overturned as a result of being unstable. 'Martyn attempted to make a right-hand turn with the plate clamps in an elevated position and no load,' said Mr Mew. 'The CCTV footage shows he was driving in an unsafe manner on a number of occasions prior to the accident. 'A forklift truck is more stable with a load than without. There were no defects on the vehicle that contributed to the accident and the tyres and seatbelt were in good functioning condition,' he added.
Christopher Longbottom
Christopher died after an incident involving a machine on the Severn Power construction site next to Uskmouth power station at Nash, Newport. C. Walters (UK) Ltd was the main contractor on the site working for Uskmouth Power Company Ltd. South Wales Fire and Rescue said Christopher was extricated by fire and ambulance crews. He was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, where he died shortly after. Christopher's employment details formed part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation. The inquest was to be held at Gwent Coroner’s Court.
Adrian Turner
Adrian, a lorry driver, died following an incident at Sims Group Metal in Alexandra Dock in Newport. Adrian who was visiting the site from an external contractor, was preparing to unload a truck at the time. Police and the Health and Safety Executive launched an investigation. Adrian's employment details formed part of the investigation. Two men were arrested and were given police bail awaiting Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advice, according to the Gwent force in July 2008. The inquest was to be held at Gwent Coroner’s Court.
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