GLOUCESTER, UK — British Waterways were guilty of a 'total lack of planning' when they carried out canal work which led to diver David Moore's death, a judge said today. Judge Mark Horton had heard how Mr Moore, 29, of Southsea, was crushed by a torrent of water when a temporary dam failed at the Upper Lode Lock in Tewkesbury, five years ago. The tragedy happened because British Waterways and the diving company failed to realise the risks of the operation and take measures to make it safe, Gloucester Crown Court was told. British Waterways, dive contractors STS of Curdridge, near Botley, Hampshire, and the diving supervisor Christopher Drake, of the same address, have all pleaded guilty to breaching Health and Safety and Diving at Work regulations. The prosecution say that while Mr Moore was involved in construction work on the upstream side of a temporary dam, a hessian seal at the bottom holding back the water failed and he was sucked against the dam wall because of the immense water pressure. The massive weight of water made it impossible for him to breathe and also prevented colleagues pulling him out. Kate Brunner, prosecuting, said "The case involves the tragic death of David Moore on 15th October 2004 while diving near a temporary dam. "His father Alick Moore has made a statement and so has his fiancee Shelley Blane. They have told of the absolute devastation caused by his death and the continuing loss felt by his family and friends. "Mr Moore speaks of the avoidable loss of a son and brother at his place of work. Your Honour will hear that this death was in fact entirely avoidable. "Mr Drake is the owner and director of small co, STS, which was awarded this diving contract. He would employ divers paid on a daily basis and Mr Moore was one such self employed diver. Mr Drake was the dive supervisor on site that day. "Upper Lode Lock is a particularly large lock built in Victorian times." She said the tragedy happened because of the convex shaped bottom of the dock basin. This prevented the hessian seal being effective and leaks then occurred which caused the intense water pressure on Mr Moore. "Hessian seals were known to be effective only if equally compressed along their length which would clearly require a level lock floor," she said. "However, these concerns were not recorded and they don't appear to have been considered by engineers or communicated to the dive teams, who had no previous experience of hessian seals." She said on October 15, 2004, water was drained from the lock basin down to a depth of 0.3 metres. This meant there was a differential of more than three metres with the water level on the other side of the dam and this exposed leaks in the dam. Mr Moore was sent down to seal the leaks and after 2-3 minutes they seemed to have stopped, she said. "Mr Moore suddenly shouted out and there was a flood of water shooting out from the downstream side of the dam at a 45 degree angle." She said Mr Moore's umbilical line went tight and colleagues could see he had stopped breathing. Staff tried to pull him to the surface but it was impossible because of the enormous pressure upon him, trapping him against the dam. "Mr Drake realised that the standby diver would face the same enormous pressure if he went in so he took the decision to equalise the pressure first." She said this entailed closing the lock gates and opening a central gate - all of which took 15 minutes. Mr Moore was then flown by air ambulance to Cheltenham General Hospital but never regained consciousness. "The enormous pressure caused by the water seeking to equalise itself through the gap under the dam had crushed him and he suffered brain damage," said Miss Brunner. Police divers found there was a 3" gap between the bottom of the dam and the lock floor in one corner, she said. Four months later when the scene was finally safe to examine in detail it was found that the only place where the hessian seal had been effective had been in the centre of the lock. This was because the floor of the lock was convex and sloped down towards the edges. When Mr Drake was interviewed he said it was commonplace to send divers down to find leaks in pressure differential situations. He would not send a diver if there was a big gap but at Upper Lode he thought the leaks were small. Miss Brunner said British Waterways had failed to ensure the safety of its contractors by taking no practical steps to identify the 'convexity' of the lock floor. | | David Moore died while working as a diver at the age of 29. British Waterways had failed to carry out sufficient risk assessment, she said. STS has failed to protect its divers during the whole period of the project from September to October 15. They, too, had failed to carry out adequate risk assessment in a complex operation, she added. "Mr Drake, as supervisor, failed to ensure the dive site was safe, that there was a risk assessment for the dive, whether the materials used were adequate and safe and he failed to obtain sufficient information about the hessian seal before committing Mr Moore to the water." Miss Brunnner told the court the prosecution is claiming costs of £225,000 against the three defendants. Toby Riley-Smith, for British Waterways, "I am asked to say how sorry British Waterways is for these offences. I apologise the court and to Mr Moore's family and fiancee for the part British Waterways played in this death. "The company is committed to protecting the health and safety of all those using the waterways and it is therefore a matter of profound regret and shame that the company finds itself in this court today. "From the outset, British Waterways has acknowledged it is at fault." He said the company had done its best to learn lessons 'from this tragic event.' He asked the court not to find that British Waterways was any more to blame for the tragedy than STS or Mr Drake. But Judge Horton said British Waterways had shown 'a wholesale failure' by not implementing a recommendation to carry out a full structural survey of the lock before starting the project. "A total lack of planning went into this," he said. Toby Halliwell, for Mr Drake and STS, said "He realises there is nothing he can do to resolve or absolve the pain and suffering Mr Moore's family have had over the last five years since his death. "The basis on which they accept responsibility is that they failed to look closely enough at the information they needed from British Waterways to ensure the place into which they were putting a diver was safe. "Mr Drake in his own mind genuinely believed there was no danger in sending Mr Moore into this location. "He says he himself would have and could very well have been the person diving that day. "He inspected the dam visually from the downstream side and he could see the site of the leak and in his experience he believed it was small and there would be no problems with suction. "Never in his experience had he seen a dam of this sort suddenly and catastrophically burst. He made an assessment that the seal would respond in a way which all other seals he had known did. "In his mind it was a safe situation as a professional diver. "He realises now it was an erroneous assumption and he should have done much much more to educate himself in how the seal worked." Mr Halliwell said STS had carried out 8,000 dives over 25 years without any previous accident or incident. The hearing continues tomorrow (Fri). |
