Deaths in 2001

Deaths in 2002

Deaths in 2003

Deaths in 2004

Deaths in 2005

Deaths in 2006

Deaths in 2001

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Deaths in 2002

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Deaths in 2003

Click on the names below for further case details

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Deaths in 2004

Click on the names below for further case details

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Deaths in 2005

Click on the names below for further case details

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Deaths in 2006

Click on the names below for further case details

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FURTHER DETAILS OF DEATHS

Neil Cooper

Neil, a tree surgeon, was killed in an incident when a tree he was cutting sprung back and hit him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

The proprietor of the forestry firm was at the site and was working alongside an employee shredding branches when a problem occurred with a machine. They secured the assistance of a third man who had been helping Neil, thereby leaving him working on his own.

Forty-five minutes later one of his colleagues returned to find Neil pinned to the ground by a fallen tree trunk. It appears that when bringing down the tree a branch had snagged on the ground creating tension so that the tree had sprung back striking him.

The inquest was held at Wirral Coroner’s Court on 10 January 2002. A verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

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Derek Welles

Derek, a dockworker at the P & O terminal container park at Gladstone Dock, Bootle, was killed when he was run over by a 70 tonne mobile crane being driven by a colleague.

John McCann, who reversed the crane, said that he last saw Derek standing on the footplate of his container transporter when he told him he was going for a break. 'I had reversed the length of two trailers and was turning to the right when I felt a bump. I immediately stopped and looked to the left and saw Derek lying on the ground. I saw that he was dead.'

Counsel for P & O Ferries James Byrne said a dozen new safety measures had been introduced since the incident.

The inquest was held at Sefton Coroner’s Court on 3 July 2002. A verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

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Philip Owens

Philip, a worker at a plastics factory was killed when he became trapped in a thermoforming machine and crushed by the weights that shape the plastic.

The inquest was held at Sefton Coroner’s Court on 17 June 2003. A verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

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Jeffery Swan

Jeffery, a dock foreman at the Seaforth Docks in Liverpool, was killed when he was crushed by a crane while in the hold of a Canadian ship, The Jega. He was directing the crane unloading forestry material through the ships hatch.

Jeffrey was working 200 feet inside the ships hold when the incident occurred. He was one of the most experienced stevedores on the dock and was an agency worker for docking company Stanton Grove.

Colin Carr, industrial organiser for the Transport and General Workers Union said that although this was only the second death at Liverpool docks in five years the union was concerned because the incident occurred in the hold of the ship which was traditionally the most dangerous areas of the ship.

'Forestry products often have to be manoeuvred from smaller areas of the hold to under the ship's oblong hatch so the cranes can reach them,' he added. 'As a foreman I imagine that he would have entered the hold to sort out a problem or answer a query.'

The inquest was held at Sefton Coroner’s Court on 4 June 2003. A verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

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Peter Bell

Peter, an HGV driver, was crushed to death at the Sefton Industrial Estate, Maghull when a heavy goods vehicle with no one at the wheel rolled forward. It has been speculated Peter may have been trying to stop the vehicle.

An inquest was held at Sefton Coroner’s Court on 8 June 2004 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

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Scott Allen

Scott was fatally injured while recovering a bus from Church Road, Garston, Liverpool, opposite the Prince Alfred Hospital. He had been sent by his employer to recover a single deck Volvo B10 B bus, owned by Glenvale Transport Ltd of Aintree, Liverpool. The air suspension system on the bus failed while Mr Allen was working underneath the unsupported vehicle, which led to the body of the bus crushing him. He died on arrival at Royal Liverpool Hospital, leaving a partner and stepdaughter.

An inquest was held at Liverpool Coroner’s Court on 11 April 2005 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

A Widnes vehicle recovery company and its managing director have been found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court of health and safety offences which led to the death of a company employee.

In October 2006 Hough Green Garage Ltd of Pickerings Road in Widnes was fined a total of £96,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 costs while its managing director David Nigel Farrell of Cronton, Widnes, Cheshire, was fined a total of £14,000 and ordered to pay £15,000 costs.

Hough Green Garage Ltd was found guilty on two charges under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Section 2(1) in that they failed to ensure the health and safety of an employee, for which it was fined £60,000 and £30,000 respectively. There was a further charge under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations1999, Regulation 3, in that they failed to carry out a risk assessment in relation to the roadside recovery of vehicles, for which they were fined £6,000.

David Farrell was found guilty of two charges under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, Section 37 in that he consented in the failure to comply with the Section 2(1) cases against the company for which he was fined £10,000 and £4,000 respectively.

David Sowerby, HSE's Head of Operations in the North West said, 'On the behalf of HSE and Merseyside Police I would like to express our sincere sympathy to Scott Allen's family.

'HSE's guidance clearly states that no employee should work under unsupported vehicles, whatever the nature of the vehicle's suspension system. The tragic incident to Mr Allen was easily avoidable. To reduce the risk of this type of incident recurring, we have undertaken further work with the organisations representing the roadside recovery industry. All agree that recovery operators should never work under unsupported vehicles for any purpose - this includes both adjusting the bus's air suspension system using the levelling valve and also using this system to raise a vehicle to gain access underneath.

'Since the incident, the Publicly Available Specification, from BSI, PAS 43, 'Safe working of vehicle breakdown, recovery and removal operations. Management system specification', which is widely accepted by the industry, has been amended to emphasise this point. Additionally, HSE and the Institute for Vehicle Recovery (IVR) are about to publish new joint guidance on this matter.

"The fundamental failures: to have safe systems of work; proper risk assessments; and safe operating procedures were key factors in Mr Allen's death. Recovery companies should ensure that they have the correct procedures in place when their employees have to work underneath vehicles at the roadside.'

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William Birchall

William, who was known to his family as John, an amusement park worker, died after he became trapped on a cable car ride at the Pleasureland park in Southport. William was a mechanical engineer who was carrying out daily ride checks on the Sky ride, an aerial cable car. He may have been pulled into the machinery by his safety harness.

Firefighters spent 45 minutes freeing William from the ride, which runs 30 feet above the ground.

Fire service spokesman Alex Dougal said, 'We believe he was caught in the machinery which crushed his chest and shoulder, and he subsequently suffered a heart attack. He was wearing full safety gear and that is what got caught in the machinery.'

William was greasing machinery on the ski lift-style ride when the incident happened. Climbing a 10m tower, he attached his harness to one of the ride's two 'bull wheels', which turn the cables carrying passenger cars. Using a two-way radio, it is believed he instructed a colleague to start turning the wheel, but his harness pulled his arm inside the machinery and he became trapped. He suffered a heart attack and died at the scene.

The inquest was held at Sefton Coroner’s Court on 24 April 2006 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

Health and Safety inspector Geoffrey Frackelton said, 'In my opinion, Mr Birchall did not have an adequate working platform or suitable attachment points, and this appears to have led him to attach his harness to the bull wheel.' He added, 'It was reasonably foreseeable that persons could frequently be exposed to danger while working on the tower. This should have been identified in the risk assessment, leading to the implementation of safety measures.'

Mr Frackelton, a principal safety inspector for mechanical engineering, said William had been put in a 'catch 22' situation, adding, 'His options were limited.'

The inspector, who is involved in a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the accident, said there was a possibility radios could go wrong because of batteries running out or a person not answering it. And he said the fair could have had an automatic greasing machine so workers would not have to spend as much time on the tower.

Directors of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the parent company, said no individual was responsible for health and safety. Instead, there was a system of corporate collective responsibility.

Coroner Christopher Sumner said because no individual was responsible there could not be a verdict of unlawful killing by gross negligence. He directed the jury to return a verdict of accidental death.

In May 2007 Pleasureland Limited pleaded guilty to two health and safety charges.

Prosecuting, Andrew Broome, of the Health and Safety Executive, said, 'This is a case which should be referred to be heard in the Crown Court.'

Pleasureland Limited, whose parent company is Blackpool Pleasurebeach, were fined £95,000 and ordered to pay £50,000 costs at Liverpool Crown Court in November 2007.

HSE Inspector Charles Cottle said, 'This was a terrible tragedy that could have been avoided had the correct procedures been in place. This case graphically illustrates that companies should ensure that safe working systems are in place for the safety of all their employees. Managers should ask themselves three questions - Do you know where maintenance staff go to do their work? What do they do when they get there? Are they safe while they are doing it?

'With answers to these questions, companies are able to carry out a suitable assessment of the risk and put in place safe procedures for carrying out maintenance work. After the accident a much improved access was provided for the maintenance of the ride, an automatic lubrication system was installed and a fixed telephone provided to improve communications. Had these measures already been in place, they would have vastly reduced the risk of accident.'

The Pleasureland amusement park subsequently closed. Any fairground now on the former site has no connection with Pleasureland Ltd, or with the parent group Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Holdings) Ltd.

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James Glynn

James was the owner of J Glynn Haulage, St Helens. It is thought that he may have had a heart attack following an electric shock from electrical equipment he was working on.

An inquest was held at the Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens Coroner's Court on 17 February 2006 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

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Lee James

Lee was working as a farm labourer driving a JCB at WRS Composting in Ince Bundell, Sefton, Lancs. Lee had been using the digger to pick up bags of compost and transfer them to the compost cutting machine. Coroner's officer Susan Baker said, 'He got out of the vehicle to check the compost machinery but the vehicle rolled forward, trapping Lee between the vehicle and the compost machinery.'

The cause of death was given as a broken back and internal injuries.

An inquest was held at the Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens Coroner's Court on 26 April 2006 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

Lee, who joined WRS Compost Ltd in December, 2004, as a fork-lift truck driver, was trained on the JCB as he undertook tasks around the site. He was then tested and given a certificate that qualified him as a driver. But Health and Safety Executive (HSE) officials would normally expect intensive off-the-job training to take place before workers could carry out basic tasks on the farm, the inquest heard.

Health and Safety Inspector Jim Corbridge said, 'At the end of the day, he was tested and passed. But I wasn't wholly happy about the route he followed to get there. So one of my recommendations was that the company should not repeat that means of training.'

Mr Corbridge said, 'The fact he was passed means he had achieved a basic level of competence, so his employer could take him to the next level of competence development.' He added: 'Once workers have done their basic training, we would expect specific job training where the complexity of the work increases over a period of time. So we would be expecting, once Lee had gone through training and the assessment, he would still be under a period of supervision while the scale and scope of his job was increased.'

After carrying out reconstructions of the accident, Mr Corbridge said it was most likely that Lee had switched off the JCB engine but forgot to apply the handbrake.

Summing up, Coroner Christopher Sumner said of Lee, 'He paid a very, very high price for a very small omission.'

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Ron Jordan

Ron, an electrical engineer and highly-respected community campaigner, suffered horrific injuries after being crushed while repairing a lift at the Wirral Tennis and Sports Centre in Birkenhead on 2 November 2005.

Ron died in Fazakerley hospital 10 days later.

An inquest was held at the Wirral Coroner's Court on 20 June 2006 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

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Fred Moses

Fred died when he fell approximately through an opening in the floor of the warehouse where he worked. Fred was wrapping a pallet of trays with shrink-wrap on a mezzanine floor approximately 4.6 metres above ground level adjacent to a hole for raising and lowering of pallets.

The hole was bordered on two sides by wooden fencing and on a third by the outside brick wall. The fourth side was equipped with three chains strung across the opening and a walkway approximately one metre wide surrounded the hole. Fred removed the chains and was wrapping the pallet when he fell through the unguarded hole to the ground floor. He died later that day in Southport District General hospital from multiple injuries.

An inquest was held at the Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens Coroner's Court on 6 July 2006 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

Fred's daughter Gail Moses commented after the verdict, 'I'm absolutely devastated that his death could have been prevented if his employers had simply taken more care.'

On 27 September 2006 Bulldog Products Ltd of Grosvenor House, Crowland Close in Southport was fined £17,500 and ordered to pay £6,998 costs after pleading guilty at North Sefton Magistrates' Court in Southport to a health and safety charge following Fred's death.

The company pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act in that it failed to ensure, as far as was reasonably practicable, the safety of its employee.

HSE Inspector Gill Chambers says, 'This tragic accident shows the importance for all businesses in assessing their work at height and putting in place measures that prevent people falling. This company put in place simple measures after the accident that, if they had been in place before the accident, would have prevented Mr Moses' death.

'Work at height includes any work in which a person could fall any distance and suffer injury, it is not just work on a roof or up a ladder. HSE asks anyone doing work at height to think about whether they need to do work at height at all, if they do to assess how they are going to do the work safely and put in place precautions that will stop a person falling and avoid another tragedy like this. Guidance on how to work safely at height is available on HSE's web site.'

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Stephen Bennett

Stephen was killed after falling into an industrial shredding machine.

Following a post-mortem examination the cause of death was given as multiple crushing injuries.

The inquest was held at the Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens Coroner's Court on 11 August 2008 when verdict of 'Death by Misadventure' was returned.

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Chris Knoop

Chris died after fire ripped through Northwest Aerosols, Fazakerley.

Chris was working at the factory in Brookfield Drive when a series of explosions destroyed the building. Hundreds of aerosol canisters were blasted 60ft into the air as 40ft flames devastated the factory. Chris’s body was discovered inside the factory and two fellow workers suffered serious burns.

An inquest was due to be held at the Liverpool Coroner's Court in July 2007 but was adjourned.

In June 2008 North West Aerosols Ltd was fined £2 at Liverpool Crown Court for breaches of health and safety laws.

Company directors put the firm into voluntary liquidation about four months after Chris's death. The judge at Liverpool Crown Court said he had taken their assets into account and fined them £1 for each offence. He said had the company been making a profit he would have fined it at least £250,000.

No-one from North West Aerosols was in court for the verdict.

Keith Morris from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said it was a 'very tragic case'. 'One person was killed and three people were very seriously injured, but also this company went out of business, so 50 people lost their jobs,' he said.

The HSE said despite the low fine, money was not the issue in the case. It said the important thing was the warning message it sent out to other companies in the aerosol business.
The HSE also found there was not enough evidence to charge the company directors.

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Ian Edgar

Ian, a delivery driver for TJ Morris Ltd, which runs the Home Bargains chain, died when he was struck by a lorry at its distribution centre.

In an unusual move, Liverpool City Council brought a prosecution before any inquest (which would be held at the Liverpool Coroner's Court).

On 3 May 2007 at Liverpool Crown Court the company was fined £120,000 following Ian's death and must also pay costs of £32,576 towards the prosecution.

The court heard that Ian was walking back to the staff car park at the depot in East Lancashire Road, Gillmoss when a heavy goods trailer collided with him.

Mark Ainsworth, prosecuting, told the court Ian’s legs became trapped and he died at the scene. He said the company, which had a turnover of £273m in 2004, had failed to provide a safe way for drivers to walk to and from the staff car park and there were only faded white marks on the roadway to designate the area. He told the court the situation was 'an accident waiting to happen'.

TJ Morris Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching a Health and Safety at Work regulation by failing to maintain safe conditions at work.

Mr Ainsworth told the court the company was fined in 2004 and 2005 for breaching health and safety at work rules.

Lisa Judge, defending, told the court the company has now installed a walkway so workers do not need to walk near the lorries.

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Peter Cole

Peter fell to his death while he was carrying out maintenance work on street lights on Princess Way, in Seaforth, in a cherry picker.

It is believed Peter fell from more than 30 feet after the cable supporting the cherry picker's cabin snapped.

Peter was the second person in August 2007 to be killed after falling from a cherry picker on Merseyside.

The inquest was held at the Liverpool Coroner's Court on 27 May 2008 when a narrative verdict was returned. This referred to 'a catastrophic failure of the telescopic boom supporting the bucket from which he was working. This caused Mr Cole to be ejected .. causing serious multiple injuries .. ."

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Lawrence Allen

Lawrence was crushed to death after a cargo of metalwork smashed through the cab of his articulated lorry at Shore Road, a private street inside the docks complex near Regent Road.
Lawrence was crushed against his dashboard after the heavy load on the back of his HGV shunted forward.

Lawrence Allen was driving an HGV with approximately 25 tonnes of sheet steel loaded on a trailer. The steel was being moved between Gladstone Steel Terminal and the quayside, using roads within the dock complex - a distance of around one and a half miles. As he slowed his vehicle on approach to a roundabout the load shifted and the sheet steel slid forwards and punched through the back of the cab, pinning him between his seat and the steering wheel. Lawrence suffered crush injuries and died at the scene.

The inquest was held at the Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens Coroner's Court on 25 April 2008 when a narrative verdict was returned.

In January 2009 Coastal Container Line Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay costs of £26,732 at Liverpool Crown Court.

The company had earlier pleaded guilty to charges under Section 2(1) and Section 3 of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at South Sefton Magistrates Court and had been committed for sentence at the Crown Court.

Kevin Jones, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector who investigated the accident, said, 'The investigation identified a number of failings including a lack of planning and inadequate training for drivers. A key factor was the practice not to secure the steel but to rely upon the weight of the steel and friction to hold the load in place while the vehicle was moving.

'The transport of steel between the steel terminal and the quayside had been taking place in this manner for at least eight months, putting not only the drivers at risk but also members of the public using the roads within the dock complex.

'Employers must ensure that there is suitable and sufficient planning for transport operations, and make sure that loads are adequately restrained. Friction alone should never be relied upon to secure a load.'

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Robert Street

Robert Street who was working as a security guard on a Bloor Homes building site off Statham Road, Bidston, was killed after being hit by a wrought iron gate which apparently blew in the wind.

Robert is thought to have attempted to open or close the gate when a gust of wind blew it out of control, knocking him unconscious. He suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain and died at Arrowe Park Hospital.

An inquest was held at the Wirral Coroner's Court on 14 June 2007 when an open verdict was returned.

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