Thames Valley Police Pays Damages to Accident Victim
The Thames Valley Police made a six-figure payment to a police civilian worker employed in the 999 control room after an accident which nearly claimed his life. The settlement was done out of court.
The accident occurred in May 2007 when a firearms lecture demonstration was being held . During the demo the firearms trainer wanted to show the use of a Dan Wesson .44 Magnum revolver, as a part of the discussion on weapons which may be used against police officers. He loaded a round of ammunition from a sweet tin in which blank rounds were usually stored and proceeded to point and fire at the control room operator, Keith Tilbury. Unfortunately for Tilbury, live rounds had been mixed with the blank ones in the tin and the shot fired at him injured him grievously causing life-threatening injuries. At the time of this writing Tilbury has still not been able to resume his duties.
When a thorough investigation was conducted into the systems followed at the police station, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors found that safety measures were in place for all these aspects of operation. Risk assessment had been carried out in time and safe practices for storage of live and blank ammunition were clearly detailed. The ammunition was to be stored only by a competent official. However, these safety norms were ignored and many of them were not followed, leading to the serious accident.
Keith Tilbury received compensation amounting to £40,000 and costs of £25,000 from the Thames Valley Police who pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, 1974. PC David Micklethwaite, who also accepted responsibility for the incident was fined £8,000 under Section 7 of the same Act and paid costs of £5,000.
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