GM fined £150,000 for safety breach that led to worker’s death

GM was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after 59 year-old Ian Heard was found at the plant in July 2010. The Birkenhead man,who joined Vauxhall as an apprentice died in hospital 11 days later. Liverpool Crown Court heard that Mr Heard had been working in the paint unit at the factory where trolleys - known as skids - carry cars through a conveyer system to be spray painted. He had entered the part of the unit where the skids are stacked in order to try and free some after they became stuck. As he moved them the machine restarted and he was crushed. The HSE investigation found a doorway had been created through a wall at the back of the paint unit, sometime after the machine had been installed in the 1990s, which allowed access without the power being cut. The court was told it had previously not been possible to get to the conveyor system while it was still operating as light sensors at the front of the machine meant it stopped if a worker walked over them. There was also an access gate in the fence around the machine, which could only be opened once the power had been switched off. A risk assessment carried out in 2000 - ten years before Mr Heard's death - identified the potential danger posed by the new door but no further action was taken by the company. It had also become standard practice for workers to use the door to free skids when they became stuck. General Motors pleaded guilty to single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 by failing to ensure the safety of employees, and failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery. Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Martin Paren said: "Ian Heard was a dedicated and loyal worker at Vauxhall for more than 40 years, but sadly he lost his life because of the company's safety failings. "There was absolutely no point in Vauxhall carrying out a risk assessment into the dangers posed by the machine if it wasn't going to act on the recommendations. "As a result workers who walked through the door to free up skids in the paint unit were put in danger for almost a decade, and one of them eventually suffered fatal injuries. "The company has now installed a new safety system on the door which means power to the machine has to cut before the door can be opened. If this system had been in place in July 2010 then Mr Heard's life could have been saved."