Statement by

 Ann Lynch Mackay

re. HSE

investigation

 into fatal accident

at STDC

17 September 2023

On 15 September it was announced that Cleveland Police had concluded its investigation into the deaths in 2019 of John Mackay and Tommy Williams on the Teesworks site.  The matter is now being returned to HSE for investigation.  Below is the response of Ann Lynch Mackay, John's widow, to that announcement:

My husband John Mackay was horrifically killed on the 19/09/2019 whilst an employee for Nationwide Platforms Loxam as a platform operator on the Redcar site South Bank Coke Ovens Cleveland.
Former SSI site now know as Teesworks.

I still find it hard to believe that to be given a job with just a postcode a time and then required to drive down to a Top Tier COMAH site to carry out what ever works that was required, without prior knowledge. This is a practice that employees are expected to adhere to.

John had no knowledge or experience of such sites he had no formal training on demolition or decommissioning, he was only given a  basic site induction. He was then used to assist and carry out demolition works.

In what was a two man job and therefore required 2 experienced and qualified demolition crew. John’s employers Nationwide Platforms were hired by JF Hunt who were carrying out demolition works on ammonia scrubbers vessels.
JF Hunt were the cheapest tender of £99000 the highest being Technical Demolition Services with a tender of £338000 but would be using a cold cutting gear process NOT HOT works.

JF Hunt along with several other contractors that were hired by the site to carry out works on the site at the time of the explosion were involved in a bid rigging cartel breaking competition bidding law by “illegally colluding” to rig bids.
These contractors in my my opinion are a disgrace to the demolition construction industry.

The fines imposed for each of the companies were
Brown and Mason (£2,400,000), Cantillon (£1,920,000), Clifford Devlin (£423,615), DSM (£1,400,000), Erith (£17,568,800), JF Hunt (£5,600,000), Keltbray (£16,000,000), McGee (£3,766,278), Scudder (£8,256,264) and Squibb (£2,000,000).

To be informed that oxyacetylene a hot works process was being used on the Ammonia Scrubbers vessels to remove furniture and then used to burn open up hatches to have a look inside. An off the cuff decision that was made that day, was then detrimental to those men both losing their lives. And led to a major catastrophe.

Such off the cuff decisions are not the way a Top Teir COMAH site should be governed.

I have done some research on the laws and  strict health and safety regulations and procedures that such sites are required to be governed by.

The vessels must have contained so much to fuel/Chemicals that the initial first blast was heard and seen for miles, followed by several more explosions. In the words of actual witnesses “it was like a jet engine roaring” and they feared that the whole site was going to blow up and ran for their lives.  The fires burned for weeks as there was that much fuel.
It shocked me to discover that Oxyacetylene was used on vessels that would have had carcinogenic substances from the process of coke oven gases, the vessels also would have contained  Benzole, Naphalene, Tar, Ammonia, as all the above all ran through the vessels along with creosote, petroleum oil, all these flammable and highly dangerous chemicals and substances.

And yet incompetent reckless and dangerous decisions were made on a Top Tier COMAH site by people in charge, who in my view obviously had a lack of knowledge, or any real expertise to understand the true nature of what the vessels contained.

Two men were instructed haphazardly to carry out work on highly hazardous and dangerous vessels. And it is seems clear to me that no tests had been carried out to establish what the true contents of the vessels were, as if tests had been carried prior to the two men being sent up to carry out works they would have discovered how highly combustible dangerous and hazardous the vast amount of chemicals/substances and residue that were actually still remaining in the vessel.

South Tees site Company  is government-owned which is an “arms lengths“ company that was specifically set up oversee the management of the former SSI Land including keeping the site SAFE.  We as a family continue to seek answers to our questions to be given very little information as to why or how these decisions were made
But we are continually told “as it’s an ongoing investigation the information given to us is very limited”

After 4 very long difficult emotional and stressful years we are very upset, angry, disappointed and confused as to why it’s take 4 years for the police to hand over primacy to the HSE.  And now, who knows how long it will take for us to discover who really is responsible and who will be held accountable for the loss of two hard working men’s lives we just feel no one really cares and their deaths have been swept under the carpet.

Tees Valley Monitor comment:

While we appreciate that an investigation such as this is complex, the length of time taken by Cleveland Police to reach this conclusion is an indication that it has not been treated with the priority it deserved.  It is now up to HSE to do better.