by Lee Kimber Norwich health and safety officials are set
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
to take action against operators who use earth-wired hoses to fill tankers after an Essex company was fined £11,000 for breaching safety rules last week.
Loughton-based CRM Fuels pleaded guilty to a charge brought by the Health & Safety Executive following an explosion at its Homefield Road depot in Haverhill, Suffolk, last October. Driver Mick Payne suffered 40% burns when vapour left over from a previous load ignited while he used an earthed hose to load a tanker with diesel.
Following the incident CRM has adopted direct bonding and re-emphasised its procedures to staff with written rules, but a spokesman says it pleaded guilty on lawyer's advice and believes its previous procedures were adequate.
"We were prosecuted on the basis that there was an incident," says the spokesman. "But there was a difference over best practice."
However, the Norwich safety official who brought the case, Richard Houghton, says earthed hoses do not guarantee a good earth connection. "If we did see it, it would be something we'd take action on," he says. Industry experts are reluctant to make definitive statements but a spokesman for the Institute of Petroleum's conveyancing panel, which draws up fuel haulage regulations, says: "You'd certainly have the tanker separately earthed."
Speaking for the Road Haulage Association, Tony Cook warns hauliers that the HSE exists to police good practice.