AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Open verdict on tank fatality

3rd August 1995, Page 6
3rd August 1995
Page 6
Page 6, 3rd August 1995 — Open verdict on tank fatality
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by Martin Hemminway • The cleaning of chemical tankers came under scrutiny last week at an inquest into the death of a Norman Lewis driver after he climbed into his tanker.

But at the end of a Bradford hearing—which heard allegations of illegal practices at Norman Lewis, countered by strong denials from the Hensallbased company—the jury returned an open verdict on last year's death of Robert James Hirst.

Forty-year-old Hirst, married with two sons, died last July in a lorry park at a chemical plant in Marl, Germany. A cloth was later found inside the tank where Hirst had been found after being dead for five days.

A post mortem in Germany was unable to establish the precise cause of his death although traces of diosobutylene, which can have an anaesthetic effect, were found in his lung tissue. Hirst had just unloaded his tanker and may have been trying to clean it.

Michael Blunt, a former employee of Norman Lewis alleged that the company supplied drivers with certificates which they could fill in themselves, pretending they had visited a designated cleaning station.

But for the company the depot manager Mark Blok said Hirst had been expected to use a specialist tanker cleaning firm only six kilometres away. He denied the company encouraged drivers to break the law.

The Coroner said it was a mystery why Hirst had got into the tank.


comments powered by Disqus