Sweden 1 - England 0
Fatal accident investigations by the Swedes make the Brits look like turnips.
For the best part of a month, Europe’s finest football players have been competing to ascertain which team is the best in Europe: whether German efficiency was a match for Italian flair; whether French flamboyance could beat Danish grit. In the end, it came down to England vs Spain. And we all know how that turned out.
In the field of football, England fell at the last. But if there was a European championship for fatal accident investigations, England wouldn’t have made the final. They wouldn’t have made it past the first round. In fact, they would have failed to qualify.
With each passing anniversary of the Didcot Disaster in which four demolition workers lost their lives, and each anniversary of the Redcar incident that claimed the lives of two workers, we have compared the investigating authority’s response with those in the US – A boiler house collapse in Ohio was investigated and prosecuted in under 18 months while, here in the UK, we are more than eight years into the Didcot investigation.
But now, there is a better comparison with which to highlight the tardiness of UK accident investigators.
Five construction workers were killed when a construction hoist in which they were traveling collapsed. The hoist - a Scando 650 FC - plummeted from the ninth floor of the building that was under construction.
The hoist was originally assembled on the 24th of August at which time it was inspected by an accredited inspector. The last extension of the hoist took place on 5 December just six days before tragedy struck.
Five of the screw and nut assemblies required to hold the mast sections together were found to be missing. Between two of the sections all four screws and nut assemblies were missing and the mast was only held together by the friction in the joints between the mast tubes and the support from a secondary structure.
We know all of this detail because the accident was thoroughly investigated. As a result of that investigation, a report has been prepared that makes a series of recommendations over the use of these hoists.
But here's the kicker. That accident occurred on the 11 December last year. 2023!
In the space of roughly seven months, the incident has been thoroughly investigated. A report has been prepared, and health and safety recommendations have been made to a number of key trade bodies.
So how was this investigated so quickly and so thoroughly? Because the accident and the investigation took place in Sweden. In Sweden, apparently, they can investigate the deaths of five construction workers in seven months. In the UK, meanwhile, we are eight and a half years into an investigation over the death of four workers at the Didcot A power station; and so far, nothing. We're almost five years into the Redcar investigation into a double fatality. And nothing.
Do the Swedes care more about their workers than we do here in the UK? I'd like to think that's not the case. Do the Swedes have more time on their hands? I don't think that's the case either. Does Sweden have more safety investigators? Apparently not. Or is it that the Swedes act in a timely manner to safeguard other workers while here in the UK we are just plagued by bureaucracy and inefficiency.
I fear that answer may be closer to the truth.