Network Rail ordered to pay £1.2M for ‘wholly avoidable’ maintenance worker fatality

Network Rail has this week been ordered to pay £1.2M following the death of a maintenance worker in November 2020, but has said it has made efforts to improve safe working knowledge and procedures in the intervening years.

Long-serving employee Kevin Mauger was carrying out maintenance work on Network Rail’s production line at the Long Welded Rail Depot in Eastleigh when the incident occurred. He was in the process of cleaning the inside of a butt-welding machine – a machine that welds two sections of rail track together – but was unaware that the machine’s conveyor system was on the wrong setting. This meant that a section of track entered the machine while Mauger was inside, crushing him under a 6t weight and killing him on site.

An investigation from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Network Rail had failed to ensure there was a safe working system for carrying out maintenance on its rail production line. It had also failed to provide an adequate risk assessment for this type of maintenance.

Network Rail pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which states: “It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”

The rail operator was ordered to pay £1.2M in fines and £11,410 in legal costs at the West Hampshire Magistrates’ Court in a written judgement delivered on 8 August.

HSE inspector Amanda Huff said: “This tragic accident was wholly avoidable, caused by the failure of the company to implement safe systems of work.

“There were no written isolation procedures in place when they were working on this highly dangerous piece of machinery and the risk assessment for carrying out maintenance was inadequate – it failed to identify suitable and sufficient control measures.

“This accident could have been avoided if there had been robust isolation procedures in place but tragically this was not the case.”

Network Rail has taken efforts to improve the safety of maintenance workers in the years since the incident.

It conducted its own investigation immediately in the aftermath and produced an interim investigation report in March 2021, followed by a final report in January 2023. All of the recommendations from the report were fully actioned by Network Rail and it was shared widely within the industry, among employees and with the safety regulator.

A company-wide safety stand down day was held in 2022 in which all employees put aside their work and go through the learning from the incident. A mandatory briefing was given to all Network Rail staff for the purposes of reflecting on the incident and improving safety culture. This information was also distributed through Network Rail’s supply chain.

At Eastleigh Long Welded Rail Depot specifically, the working practices were completely revised. A company review is currently underway into Network Rail’s current standards and policies on plant procurement, management and maintenance. This programme aims to improve the ownership, maintenance and operation across all of Network Rail’s fixed plant and bespoke machinery.

Network Rail managing director of route services Robert Morton said: “On behalf of Network Rail, I apologise unreservedly to the family and friends of Mauger, for our failures and the tragedy they continue to live with every day. There is no mitigation or size of fine that will make up for the loss they have suffered.”

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