Legal News

International steel manufacturer Tata has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), after an employee suffered injury in an explosion at Tata’s Rotherham steel foundry.

On 9 March 2012, at Tata Speciality Steels’ premises in Aldwarke Lane, Rotherham, the unnamed worker narrowly escaped death when he was showered in scalding molten metal in the explosion.

The worker from Rotherham was injured after a control system fault caused 25 tons of molten metal to spill from a furnace – two other employees received minor injuries.

When the incident occurred, the worker and a colleague had begun to hose water onto the spilled metal to cool it down. Soon after the water made contact, there was a huge explosion and the worker was covered in molten metal.

The worker managed to stagger to safety, where colleagues rushed to his aid and applied a burn shield before he was taken to hospital.

The man – who had worked at Tata and its predecessor since 1979 – was in an induced coma for three weeks in intensive care at a specialist burns unit at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.

He needed numerous skin grafts and reconstructive surgery to his eyes, ears and forehead. He has since managed to return to work, but can no longer work in any high-temperature area.

The incident was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which decided to prosecute Tata Steel UK Ltd for safety breaches.

The HSE investigation found that, a few weeks prior to the incident, a fire had damaged the furnace control system, which required a temporary fix until new parts were fitted.

On the day of the incident, an electrician was asked to remove the workaround, as it was thought that the fault had been fixed.

Leading up to the explosion, molten metal was being poured from the furnace into a ladle underneath for the first time since the removal of the temporary fix.

As the molten metal poured, an alarm activated – locking the furnace into position. A furnace worker tried the emergency return, which should have returned the furnace and stopped the molten metal discharging, but this failed.

After the ladle had been filled and automatically moved away, the furnace continued to discharge a further 25 tons of molten metal into a pit below.
HSE’s investigation identified serious safety failings by Tata in recognising and dealing with risks that led to workers being exposed to unnecessary danger.

HSE investigators also found Tata had no procedures for dealing with spillages of molten metal, no assessment of the dangers and risks had been carried out – and there was no safe system of work in place.

HSE found this led to a situation where it had become normal practice for workers to hose water onto spills.

Molten metal will explode if water penetrates the surface. The water is trapped under the surface of the molten metal and rapidly turns to steam vapour causing a sudden rise in pressure and resulting in a massive explosion – a risk well known within the industry.

At Sheffield Crown Court, Tata Steel UK Ltd., Millbank in south London was fined a total of £180,000 and ordered to pay £82,979.26 in costs, after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

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