£405 job 'may have prevented blast'

The blast was caused by a build-up of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) which leaked from pipework installed in 1969. The gas vapour built up in a basement area and may have ignited when a labourer switched on a light when he went into the basement to pick up his tools, the High Court in Glasgow was told.

Over the years, bosses of the two companies involved had ordered risk assessments at the Stockline plastics factory, but these had not specifically investigated the condition of the underground pipe work. And one risk assessment was carried out by a college student doing vacation work.

The background to the tragedy was told to the judge, Lord Brodie, by Angus Stewart QC, for the Crown.

Mr Stewart told the judge an official from the firm of J Gas, which supplied the factory with LPG from 1998, said that if he had known the installation dated from 1969 and that the factory operators, ICL, did not know the state of the pipework, he would have told them to excavate and inspect, or to cut off the pipework and install an up-to-date replacement.

"Alan Elliot of J Gas calculates that it would have cost £405 to replace the pipework," said Mr Stewart.

The two companies involved in the Stockline tragedy, ICL Plastics and ICL Tech, have pleaded guilty to four charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act, and will be sentenced on Tuesday.

The most sombre section of the prosecution account came when the names of the dead and injured, and a brief description of their injuries, was read out in court. This took a full half-hour.

The charges to which the two companies have pleaded guilty alleged that between 1993 and 2004 they failed to ensure there was no risk to employees from pipe work at the factory.

Mr Stewart told the judge the case was directed against the companies and not individuals and the Crown was not suggesting the failure to assess the risks of the buried pipe work was "wilful".