Jury acquits firm of negligence charge

Jan 31 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

A JURY yesterday acquitted a firm of negligence following the death by electrocution of two of its workers.

Following the verdict, the managing director of Newcastle-based Hatton Traffic Management Ltd, which employed road workers Fred Cook and John Crimmins, criticised the Health and Safety Executive for bringing the prosecution.

Marshall Bailey, owner of the company which has its headquarters in Brunswick, Gosforth, and which employs 30 workers, said: “Fred Cook and John Crimmins were friends as well as employees.

“Our sympathy is with their families and friends, but this case should never have gone to court.”

He added: “We provided sufficient evidence to have dissuaded the HSE from bringing this prosecution, but it went ahead regardless.

“Its officials acted in what I consider to be an authoritarian manner, and I am sorry that the families of Fred and John had to wait six years for this unnecessary case to proceed.”

Roadworks supervisor Mr Cook, 38, of Abbots Way, and colleague Mr Crimmins, 33, of Stonethwaite, both North Shields, were killed when 20,000 volts of electricity from overhead power lines surged through a lighting tower they were moving. The pair were working on resurfacing the A66 at Greta Bridge in County Durham, on January 16, 2002.

Their employer was accused of failure to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risk to its employees and failure to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its workers, including Mr Cook and Mr Crimmins.

But the hearing at Middlesbrough’s Teesside Crown Court was told the two workers should not have been moving the lighting tower, which was used to illuminate the road for motorists and to alert them of lane changes, without dismantling it first.

Mr Bailey, whose firm provides the traffic management for the Great North Run, said: “Nobody knows why they were moving the tower without dismantling it first.”

Mr Crimmins’ parents Kim and Barbara sat through the four-week trial. After the hearing Kim Crimmins said he was “very disappointed” by the verdict. But he added: “Safety procedures have since been tightened, so at least my son did not die in vain.”

A spokesman for the HSE said: “The decision to prosecute was made in good faith. While disappointed with the verdict we fully respect the decision of the court. Our sympathies as always lie with the family and friends of the deceased.”

The principal contractor for the works, Colas Ltd, has admitted a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and is due to be sentenced at Teesside.