04/08/2015
Aerospace Firm CAV Cambridge was fined £600,000 and ordered to pay costs of £125,000 after being found guilty of corporate manslaughter.
In 2013, a 47 year old worker was crushed to death after several tonnes of metal ‘stringers’ fell on him.
Health and Safety Breaches
After concluding their investigation, the HSE produced a damning report, concluding that the workers death was, “entirely preventable”.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson had said: "The collapse of the stack of stringers was the direct result of a more general failure to stack the stringers in a safe and orderly manner throughout the hangar.
"The more general failure was in turn a direct result of the fact that there was far too much stock in the hangar and no space to stack it, with the consequence that stringers were being stacked inappropriately both in terms of where they were being stacked and the height to which they were being stacked.
The risks of a fatal accident occurring were made clear to the senior management team of the company.
In setting the fine, Judge Gerald Gordon took into account that CAV was not making large sums of money at present.
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