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BT UNION HEALTH & SAFETY
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BT Cleared Over Death Of Engineer Tara Whelan
CWU member Tara Whelan, a BT Engineer, died after falling from a telegraph pole near Trowbridge. The tragedy happened in Marsh Road, Hilperton, on Friday, May 25, 2001. Tara died eight days later at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol from skull injuries.
The Health and Safety Executive, brought a prosecution against her employer, BT, and after a four-week trial at Bristol Crown Court BT was acquitted of a single charge of failing to ensure the safety of their employees. After deliberating for eight-and-a-half hours, a reduced jury of ten people returned the not guilty verdict.
During the hearing witnesses stated that tara appeared completely competent when climbing the pole and that she was wearing all safety equipment necessary for the job. Additionally her colleague, Mark Stone stated when asked about the condition of the pole and the fact that wires were low, that he too would have climbed the pole because all the checks they were trained to do had been carried out. They were not told by BT to check the height of the wiring before climbing poles.
Unknown to BT the wiring had been snagged prior to the call out by a high sided lorry and engineers from Scottish and Southern Electricity had been called out to repair a low hanging wire.
A CWU spokesperson said "We are of the view that the HSE were right to bring the prosecution in view of the weight of evidence and don't think anything more could have been done in respect of presenting the evidence to the court."
The spokesperson went on to express surprise at the verdict given the facts in the case: "Of course we are more than a little surprised at the verdict particularly in view of the previous the Coroners inquest but the technical nature of the case may have made it difficult for the jury to reach a verdict as they were out for an unusually long time of over 8 and a half hours. However the court has made its decision and everyone must accept it. We will continue working with BT and the HSE to keep working at height as safe as we can for our members and of course our deepest sympathy remains with Tara's family, friends and work colleagues."
Tragically as is often the case, it has taken a death before procedures are put in place to prevent a foreseeable accident, in this case one of low hanging wires. Since the verdict BT's procedures have changed - all wiring must now be checked before pole climbing to ensure it is not below a height of 5.2 meters.
Source: CWU, HSW Magazine
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