Producer of bagged salads, potato salads and prepared fruits for very many well-known retail outlets, Nature’s Way Foods in Chichester have been fined £170,000 with costs of £35,403 for the death of a young sub-contractor, Bradley Watts (21) from Manningtree in Essex. Bradley, who worked for Mistley Insulation Services, was lagging refrigeration pipes in the loft space of the company’s premises in Chichester in June 2011 when he came into contact with a 240 volt live electrical cable and was electrocuted. The ambulance crew pronounced him dead at the scene.
The HSE said that the live cable was part of an old system that had been removed by Nature’s Way Foods in 2008. It was not identified in any way and its existence and “live” nature was unknown to the company. The HSE said in a statement: “Had the old cabling been removed in a systematic and controlled way or subsequent checks of the loft space identified the examples of poor practice, Bradley Watts’ death could have been avoided.” His death had been declared “accidental” at the inquest in September last year, with the coroner describing the live cable as having been left in a “precarious and dangerous” way.