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Widnes firm fined over employee's fall injuries

A Cheshire worker could have been killed when he fell from the top of a chemical storage tank, a court has heard.

The 44-year-old from Bala, North Wales, had been carrying out maintenance work on the tank at a plant in Widnes when the chemical vapour inside set alight, causing an explosion. The worker was thrown from the tank and fell around two and a half metres, landing on a metal girder below.

His employer, Hutchinson Technical Services (HTS) Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an investigation into the incident at its Ditton Road site on 13 May 2010.

HTS pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to ensure suitable measures were in place to prevent workers being injured in a fall.

The company, of Fleming Road in Middlesborough, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £3,588 in prosecution costs on 26 March 2012.

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