Companies Charged with Negligence in Buncefield Explosion
At least three companies have pleaded guilty to safety breach charges in the Buncefield blast of December 2005. At the hearing in St. Alban’s Crown Court, based on the findings of the investigation, the jury charged TAV Engineering Ltd. with neglecting to protect the general public and the company’s workers.
Other firms that pleaded guilty to the same charges previously were Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd., Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd and Total and British Pipeline Agency Ltd. Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd. was found guilty on two charges, one for neglecting to stop a major accident and the other for polluting the surrounding areas and controlled water in Buncefield.
HSE and the Environment Agency issued a joint statement which stated that the Buncefield case was the biggest and most complicated criminal inquiry they had worked together. It came about after many hundreds of hours of painstaking forensic investigation.
The organizations had decided to take legal action against the companies because they had failed to protect members of the public, workers and the environment. They stated that the Buncefield fire was the largest fire in peacetime
They added that although the scale of the explosion and fire was huge, miraculously no one had died. This could change in future unless the high hazard industries truly learnt a lesson from the Buncefield accident. The verdict will be out by 16 July.
Protecting the health and safety of employees or members of the public who may be affected by your activities is an essential part of risk management. Failure to comply with fire safety legislation can pose a serious and significant risk and cost to a business. Fire safety management solutions (see Fire Risk Assessments) from Workplace Law are tailored to meet site-specific requirements for the implementation, review and audit of fire safety policies, procedures and processes.
