Firm fined after diver's death

Stolt Offshore provides divers to the oil industry

An offshore contractor has been fined £60,000 at Aberdeen Sheriff Court following the death of a diver.

Stolt Offshore admitted contravening health and safety regulations after the death of Christopher Hill, 42, in the North Sea last year.

Stolt Offshore had been charged with failing to provide a safe working environment for the diver.

Mr Hill died in an explosion as he worked on the seabed in the Buchan field last August.

He was using cutting equipment to remove redundant pipework.

The firm was fined at Aberdeen Sheriff Court

Fiscal Andrew Grant said it was not a freak accident, nor was it a tragedy that had happened despite all precautions to prevent it.

He said it was an accident that could easily have been avoided had the company properly addressed its duties to provide a risk assessment adequate to the tasks Mr Hill was being asked to undertake.

Stolt Offshore's QC John Mitchell said that, following Mr Hill's death, the company had instituted new safety procedures to ensure that such an accident could not happen again.

Sheriff Alexander Pollock accepted that the company had taken significant steps to improve safety since the accident, but fined them £60,000.