{"id":92531,"date":"2021-04-26T10:46:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T09:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=92531"},"modified":"2021-04-26T10:46:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T09:46:16","slug":"tyne-wear-metro-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyne Wear Metro operator, Nexus<\/a>\u00a0has been fined \u00a31.5m after failing to ensure the safety of its staff, tragically resulting in the death of an employee<\/h2>\n

John Bell died while working at height<\/a> carrying out maintenance work on high voltage overhead cables at the company\u2019s South Gosforth depot in July 2014.<\/p>\n

Bell was electrocuted after contacting a wire he believed to be isolated from the power supply, but, due to the incorrect installation of equipment, it was in fact live.<\/p>\n

The Office of Rail and Road<\/a> (ORR) found safety-critical procedures were ignored and some continued for a substantial period after John\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

This included failures to allow work to be carried out without the appropriate instructions for staff to prevent injury; work being undertaken without the required safety critical permits; and serious inadequacies in policy documents covering \u2018live line working\u2019, which failed to include a requirement for staff to test all electrical wires before carrying out work.<\/p>\n

ORR found lessons were not learned over a number of years and problems persisted despite the death of John, putting people at risk<\/a> for a substantial period thereafter.<\/p>\n

The sentence was passed by His Honour Judge Spragg at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Crown Court, following ORR\u2019s prosecution.<\/p>\n

Nexus agreed the failures involved were a significant cause of the death.<\/p>\n

In his remarks, His Honour Judge Spragg said the case was an avoidable tragedy of a much-loved man and that Nexus should have prevented such a state of affairs from arising and continuing.<\/p>\n

A fundamental safety requirement<\/h3>\n

Ian Prosser CBE, HM chief inspector of Railways at ORR, said: \u201cNexus\u2019 working practices were poor and continued so for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis meant Nexus did not have the right measures in place to assess whether the Metro was being maintained safely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a fundamental safety requirement to test electrical equipment before any work takes place, but the failure to review and monitor safety critical systems meant that lessons were not learned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sadly contributed to the events which caused the death of Mr Bell. Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Mr Bell and I hope this result brings them some peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tyne Wear Metro operator, Nexus, has been fined \u00a31.5m after pleading guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974., for failing to ensure the safety of staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[689,676,432,661,579,928,753],"stakeholder_rel_tag":[],"contributor_rel_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-92531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-health-safety-news","7":"tag-equipment","8":"tag-construction","9":"tag-health-safety","10":"tag-hr","11":"tag-infrastructure","12":"tag-rail-network","13":"tag-safety"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nexus has been fined \u00a31.5m after failing to ensure the safety of its staff, tragically resulting in the death of an employee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nexus has been fined \u00a31.5m after failing to ensure the safety of its staff, tragically resulting in the death of an employee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planning, Building & Construction Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-26T09:46:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tyne-and-wear-metro-sign-post.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1020\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"575\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elisha Sketchley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PBC_Today\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PBC_Today\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elisha Sketchley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4ae66827b33682426f672d214cdd7580\"},\"headline\":\"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-26T09:46:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/\"},\"wordCount\":369,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Construction Equipment\",\"Construction Processes\",\"Health & Safety\",\"HR\",\"Infrastructure\",\"Rail Network\",\"Safety\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health & Safety News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2021\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/\",\"name\":\"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-26T09:46:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"Nexus has been fined \u00a31.5m after failing to ensure the safety of its staff, tragically resulting in the death of an employee\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Planning, Building & Construction Today\",\"description\":\"The Latest Planning, Building & Construction News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Planning, Building & Construction Today\",\"alternateName\":\"PBC Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pbctoday-logo-yoast-seo-organisation-1920-1080-001.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pbctoday-logo-yoast-seo-organisation-1920-1080-001.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Planning, Building & Construction Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/PBC_Today\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4ae66827b33682426f672d214cdd7580\",\"name\":\"Elisha Sketchley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/30054ee50e4135840aa91decc99b14268d346fcf23e3f41d0ecfe6c19255e936?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/30054ee50e4135840aa91decc99b14268d346fcf23e3f41d0ecfe6c19255e936?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elisha Sketchley\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/author\/elishasketchley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee","description":"Nexus has been fined \u00a31.5m after failing to ensure the safety of its staff, tragically resulting in the death of an employee","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee","og_description":"Nexus has been fined \u00a31.5m after failing to ensure the safety of its staff, tragically resulting in the death of an employee","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/","og_site_name":"Planning, Building & Construction Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/","article_published_time":"2021-04-26T09:46:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1020,"height":575,"url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/tyne-and-wear-metro-sign-post.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Elisha Sketchley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PBC_Today","twitter_site":"@PBC_Today","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/"},"author":{"name":"Elisha Sketchley","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4ae66827b33682426f672d214cdd7580"},"headline":"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee","datePublished":"2021-04-26T09:46:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/"},"wordCount":369,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["Construction Equipment","Construction Processes","Health & Safety","HR","Infrastructure","Rail Network","Safety"],"articleSection":["Health & Safety News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2021","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/","name":"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-04-26T09:46:16+00:00","description":"Nexus has been fined \u00a31.5m after failing to ensure the safety of its staff, tragically resulting in the death of an employee","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/tyne-wear-metro-fine\/92531\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tyne Wear Metro operator fined \u00a31.5m after death of employee"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/","name":"Planning, Building & Construction Today","description":"The Latest Planning, Building & Construction News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization","name":"Planning, Building & Construction Today","alternateName":"PBC Today","url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pbctoday-logo-yoast-seo-organisation-1920-1080-001.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pbctoday-logo-yoast-seo-organisation-1920-1080-001.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"Planning, Building & Construction Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/","https:\/\/x.com\/PBC_Today"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4ae66827b33682426f672d214cdd7580","name":"Elisha Sketchley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/30054ee50e4135840aa91decc99b14268d346fcf23e3f41d0ecfe6c19255e936?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/30054ee50e4135840aa91decc99b14268d346fcf23e3f41d0ecfe6c19255e936?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elisha Sketchley"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk"],"url":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/author\/elishasketchley\/"}]}},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-03 08:56:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92531"},{"taxonomy":"stakeholder_rel_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stakeholder_rel_tag?post=92531"},{"taxonomy":"contributor_rel_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor_rel_tag?post=92531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}