An engineering firm from Gloucester has become the first company to be prosecuted under the new corporate manslaughter laws which are designed to hold companies criminally liable for failing to take care for a person’s safety. The firm, Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings, is accused of gross negligence which led to the death of a geologist working on a building site near the town of Stroud in September 2008.
Alexander Wright had been working as a geologist taking samples on a construction site when the pit he was working in collapsed, killing him. One of the directors of the company has also been accused of gross negligence manslaughter over Mr Wright’s death. If the director is found guilty he found he could face a life sentence in prison and the company could face an unlimited fine.
Corporate manslaughter law came into force in April last year in the wake of incidents such as the Paddington rail crash, which saw the deaths of 31 people and another 400 injured after two trains collided. After the crash, Network Rail, which had been in charge of maintaining the tracks, was fined £4million for breaching health and safety regulations.
The new law means that prosecutions can be made against the company as an entity, as opposed to the old system where only individual company directors could be prosecuted. In over 40 years, the old system saw only 36 prosecutions for corporate manslaughter after the first trial in 1965.
The new laws will hold companies to account for their attitudes to health and safety; it will be possible to secure a conviction provided that it can be demonstrated that any failures were substantially the fault of the senior management. The hope amongst the government and the legal industry is that the new law will be much more effective than its predecessor and will allow authorities to take tough action against corporate crime.
Whilst Camps Solicitors does not bring criminal prosecutions, the new laws will have an impact on the hundreds of people who come to us every year to help them to make an injury claim for personal injuries compensation following an accident either at their workplace, or whilst they were working.
If the accident was the fault of a poor attitude towards health and safety by their managers, then as well as a civil claim for accident compensation, a company can be taken to court for breaching health and safety regulations and may have to pay a substantial fine as a result.
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