Water firm admits health and safety offences after four killed in blast
It happened in 2020
A water company has admitted three health and safety offences, in relation to the deaths of three men and a teenage boy, who were killed in an explosion.
Luke Wheaton, 16, from Bradley Stoke, Ray White, 57, from Portishead, Brian Vickery, 63, from Clevedon, and Mike James, 64, from Bath, died in the incident at the Wessex Water site in Avonmouth, near Bristol, on December 3 2020.
In July 2024, Avon and Somerset Police said there was insufficient evidence for a manslaughter prosecution.
But, earlier this year, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced that it intended to prosecute Wessex Water in relation to three offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Representatives for the company appeared before District Judge Lynne Matthews at Bristol Magistrates’ Court today (Friday), to enter guilty pleas to three charges.
The first charge states that Wessex Water failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all employees, including Luke, Mr Vickery and Mr White, in relation to risks arising from its use of silos for the storage of treated sewage waste, between January 1 2013 and December 4 2020.
Wessex Water is also charged with failing to ensure that people not in its employment, including contractor Mr James, were not exposed to risks to their health and safety between the same dates.
The final charge relates to a company failing to comply with an improvement notice, served on January 2021, requiring it to demonstrate, by March 12 2021, that it had made “a suitable and sufficient assessment” of fire and explosion risks arising from dangerous substances produced, processed or used on the Avonmouth site.
Judge Matthews adjourned the case to Bristol Crown Court on January 8.