Thames Water Utilities Limited fined £316,000 for confined space failures and failure to co-ordinate different activities

Water and wastewater company Thames Water Utilities Limited (TWUL) was  fined £316,000 (inc.costs) following an incident in which three workers were carried along a sewer following the collapse of a 150-year-old sewer gate.

The circumstances were:

• On 29 August 2017, three workers were carrying out preparatory work in a sewer for the Thames Tideway Tunnel at East Greenwich.
• TWUL's permission and authorisation system was fragmented. 
• TWUL had no effective means of collating, comparing and adapting to the impact of multiple work activities.
• TWUL had planned individual work activities but failed to properly coordinate these.
• Due to an unrelated planned power outage, sewage pumps vital to the control of sewage levels for the work being undertaken at East Greenwich were not available.
• This resulted in the failure of a 150-year-old cast iron penstock, which engulfed the workers and carried them along the sewer. 
• The three workers suffered minor physical injuries but have been mentally affected. 
• One worker has been treated for the long-term traumatic stress because of the incident which has prevented him from continuing work in his specialised career.

The HSE inspector said:
“This serious incident endangered the lives of three workers and caused lasting adverse mental health effects; the workers narrowly avoided death by drowning in sewage. It should serve as a warning and a reminder to all those that work in confined spaces that work in these challenging environments must be properly planned, coordinated and managed.”