Renown Consultants guilty over fatigue deaths

Renown Consultants Ltd has been found guilty of failing to ensure two men who died in a road traffic accident were sufficiently rested to work and travel safely.

The company was found guilty of failing to discharge its duty under Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc

Act 1974 and regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 - and was thus guilty of an offence contrary to Section 33 of the Act. It is the first time the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has brought a prosecution in relation to failures of fatigue management.

On June 19 2013, Zac Payne (20) fell asleep at the wheel of a work van and came off the motorway, crashing into a parked van while driving back to Doncaster after a night shift in Stevenage. Michael Morris (48) also died in the accident.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that Payne had left Doncaster at 0430 on the previous day and driven to Alnmouth, arriving at 0730. The expected work there did not take place, so after waiting until midday, Payne started the drive back to Renown’s Doncaster depot, arriving at 1500.

On his way to the depot he was asked to take on an overnight railway welding job in Stevenage, and he and Morris set off from the depot at 1918, arriving on site at 2147. After carrying out welding jobs from 2315 to 0340, they set off back to Doncaster. The crash occurred at around 0530.

The ORR told the court that Payne, who like his colleague was employed on a zero-hours contract, was suffering from the effects of fatigue and may have fallen asleep at the wheel or experienced ‘microsleeps’, which hugely increased the risk of a traffic accident.

The court was told that Network Rail had asked Renown for an additional welding team for the Stevenage job at 0730 on June 18, and that Renown had accepted the job before speaking to Payne and before considering whether it had sufficient well-rested employees.

The court was also told that Renown did not follow its own fatigue management procedures or comply with working time limits for safety-critical work, which insist there should be a minimum rest period of 12 hours between booking off from a turn of duty to booking on for the next, and that it did not conduct a sufficient and suitable risk assessment of Payne’s fatigue.

Payne was also permitted to drive even though Renown’s insurance policy stipulated that only over-25s could drive its vehicles. The court heard evidence from other members of staff that the policy was routinely flouted.

The ORR found that Renown’s policies and procedures were “particularly inadequate because employees were on zero-hours contracts, and these contracts created an obvious incentive for employees to volunteer for work when they were too tired as they were only paid for the shifts they worked. This was made worse as Payne and other trainee welders were reliant on Renown for securing the qualifications they needed to qualify as welders, which discouraged them for refusing shifts.”

Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser CBE said: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Mr Payne and Mr Morris.

“The rail industry relies on a huge workforce of skilled manual staff often working at night and on shifts. Fatigue is a real and known risk which reduces alertness and affects performance. Today’s tragic case shows the fatal consequences that can occur when fatigue policies are disregarded.”

Renown Consultants will be sentenced at a later date.