Learning lessons from worker’s weir drowning

On 30 October 2017, Gary Webster drowned in the River Aire, Leeds, West Yorkshire, when the boat he was working from capsized.

Mr Webster and another worker were removing debris from the gates of Knostrop Weir when a substantial flow of water from the weir overwhelmed the boat. The 60-year-old was pulled under water and recovered by a diver 14 minutes later. He died two days later at Leeds General Infirmary. His colleague was able to swim to safety.

Tom McNeill says while the drowning was easily avoidable there are perhaps far more important lessons to be learnt. “With hindsight, the failings were basic and stark and, as the HSE noted, could so easily have been avoided. If any lesson is going to be learned, however, the starting point must be that these failings happened in a company that took its safety responsibilities seriously and devoted considerable resource to safety management.

“At the earlier coroner’s inquest, the company explained the careful planning that had gone into all other tasks executed on site that day – the risk assessments, procedures, and competency requirements. A dynamic risk assessment was carried out prior to the task commencing – while inadequate, the relevant employees knew that Step One was to consider safety, they just didn’t understand the risks: the hazards presented by weirs are variable and not obvious.

“The ‘solution’ was for the risks to be addressed at the ‘safety management’ level, rather than leaving it to workers on the ground. This is what happened after the accident. Consolidated guidance was produced banning the activity and trained out to relevant workers. This ‘solution’, however, requires the management to have spotted the risk in the first instance, or have the risk reported to them. The management, as well as workers on the ground, are as prone to knowledge gaps, lack of foresight, oversights, and errors of judgment as everyone else. They must also deal with the hundreds of other life-threatening risks that are present on a largescale construction project."

This article was first written for and published in SHP on 30 July 2024, to read the full article click here.