The true cost of an Industrial Accident
On the 1st of February the National Rank &
File meeting was held in Glasgow. One of the guest speakers was Louise Taggart
from the Scottish Hazards and F.A.C.K (Families Against Corporate Killers) campaigns
who gave a really moving health & safety presentation around fatalities in
the workplace. She spoke in detail about her own personal experience of when
her brother who was an electrician was electrocuted and killed at his work and
how it affected her family. I don’t think that there was anyone in the room,
full of tough construction workers, that wasn’t moved by Louise’s experience.
This has inspired me to write this article about my own experience of a fatal
industrial accident and how it has affected me and my family for almost 30
years.
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| Kenneth Hume |
My story starts way back on the 5th July 1984, a
really hot summer’s day, but a day which was to become one that would haunt my
family forever. Kenneth Hume, my dad, was an electrician who worked for S.S.E.B
(Scottish Power). He served his time with them and was an experienced 29 year
old operative. I vaguely remember him being on call or standby a lot of the
time and having to go out through the night to deal with faults and issues
throughout the area, but on this particular day he was carrying out maintenance
at Gartcosh Substation in Lanarkshire which was around 3 miles or so from where
we lived. My dad took the opportunity, as he was working so close to home, to
come home and have lunch at my gran’s and spend some time with myself and my
brother Scott.
We had only just celebrated Scott’s 2nd birthday a few days previously. When it was time for my dad to go back to work, I remember asking him to give me a lift to my friend’s house just around the corner in his Ford Transit. I was obsessed with his van and in particular his tool chest in the back which had a photograph of a chimpanzee on the lid, I would often ask to go out to the van to see the chimp, these are the sort of things that interested me at 4 years old I guess. Dad told me that he couldn’t give me a lift, I can’t quite remember if it was because he was in a hurry to get back or if it was because he wasn’t insured to have me travelling in the van, but in any case, being a child I threw a tantrum because I wasn’t getting my own way and the words that came out my mouth next, are words that I have wished I could take back for nearly 30 years……”I hate you!” I know my dad would not have taken it to heart and would know that I was just acting like a spoiled brat, but it tears me up that those are the last words I would ever say to him.
We had only just celebrated Scott’s 2nd birthday a few days previously. When it was time for my dad to go back to work, I remember asking him to give me a lift to my friend’s house just around the corner in his Ford Transit. I was obsessed with his van and in particular his tool chest in the back which had a photograph of a chimpanzee on the lid, I would often ask to go out to the van to see the chimp, these are the sort of things that interested me at 4 years old I guess. Dad told me that he couldn’t give me a lift, I can’t quite remember if it was because he was in a hurry to get back or if it was because he wasn’t insured to have me travelling in the van, but in any case, being a child I threw a tantrum because I wasn’t getting my own way and the words that came out my mouth next, are words that I have wished I could take back for nearly 30 years……”I hate you!” I know my dad would not have taken it to heart and would know that I was just acting like a spoiled brat, but it tears me up that those are the last words I would ever say to him.
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| Gartcosh Substation, Lanarkshire |
Later in the afternoon the sound of sirens could be heard
heading towards Gartcosh. I remember years later my mum saying that she got a
really horrible feeling when she heard them, however not knowing or even
thinking at the time that she was to become a widow with two young sons. The
sirens were heading for Gartcosh because my dad had been electrocuted! I’m not
going to go into too much detail about the actual
incident, mainly because I
still don’t have the full details and because I want this article to focus on
the how my family was affected in the aftermath. The reason for this being that
the files relating to the Fatal Accident Inquiry were to be kept with a lawyer,
with instruction, for myself and Scott to receive them when we were old enough
to handle the details contained within them. These files were destroyed without
permission and we have never seen them.
Part of the reason I became an electrician was to try and
understand how electricity works and maybe understand what caused my dad’s
death. You can imagine how my mum took the news about my career choice,
initially she found it quite difficult but I reassured her that I wasn’t going
to be working in the High Voltage side of things. My brother is also a spark
and I often think about how things could have been very different as mum used
to tell me that my dad’s dream was to have his own electrical business someday.
Maybe dad would have tried to direct Scott and myself down another career path
or would he have supported our career choice to make it a family business?
Something we will never know. I remember mum being very upset at times after my
dad’s death, I can only assume that the only reason she carried on was because
of Scott and me. The police asking very personal questions about her marriage,
my dad’s state of mind, if he had been drinking etc. I know they were only
doing their job but the timing wasn’t appropriate and the press were turning up
at the house as well and my gran having to chase them off the doorstep were all
putting strain on my mum as she started the grieving process. I also think
about my grandparents whom had already lost a son in a tragic accident. My
dad’s eldest brother William had been killed in a road accident at 13 years old.
I really don’t know where they got the strength from to hold it together. I
wasn’t at dad’s funeral as mum felt I was too young, but everyone always tells
me that there was a queue of cars behind the hearse that stretched through all
the streets of the estate where we lived. That comforts me to know how much my
dad was loved by family, friends and workmates. I suppose the funerals of young
people are always well attended as it is such a shock that a life is cut short
so prematurely.
Now that I am a parent myself with a daughter Jorja and a
son whom we named after my dad, it really hits home to me all the things that
my dad missed out on as Scott and me grew up. All the advice that we should
have got from dad as well as the telling offs for all the crazy stuff we used
to get up to as teenagers. Holidays, family gatherings, birthdays, nights out,
being there for us when we had a problem, the list is endless. I truly am
grateful to my mum for giving us a fantastic upbringing under such tragic
circumstances with help from friends and family. I really wish dad had been
here to see his grandchildren, every time either of them do or say something
new it makes me think about dad and all the joy that he has been robbed of and
that Jorja and Kenneth have been robbed of a loving Papa. I hold every hour I
spend with them precious as what I have learned from this is that you never
know what is around the corner.
Only this morning, we had the tragic news of a worker killed
in a tunnel on the Crossrail project in London. A 43 year old man out earning
to provide for himself and his family, unfortunately won’t be returning home to
them today. Unfortunately the way that Crossrail have handled the incident in
the press, in my opinion, comes across as almost trying to make excuses and
verging on justifying this poor man’s death by quoting their accident rate as
“below the industry average”. It’s almost as if they are saying that they have
done so well to get this far into the project without there being a fatality!
At this time my heart goes out to this man’s family and I
can relate to how they must be feeling. This is “THE TRUE COST OF AN INDUSTRIAL
ACCIDENT”, not the delay to a project, not the suspension of production, not
the cost of an HSE investigation, not the cost of a Fatal Accident Inquiry, not
the cost of expensive company lawyers, not the cost of the emergency services
attending an incident and not the cost of compensation if there even is any!
The cost lies with the families left behind, the emotional
and mental cost. No amount of money can take away the pain.
This is why on Monday the 28th of April 2014 for
International Workers Memorial Day, I ask that every worker in the country
support the UK Hazards Campaign and fight like hell for
our lives & health and that of our families and friends. All those killed simply for going to work to
earn a living are not publicly remembered on any other day. Social media should
be put to great use to show support and Hazards has suggested using
"Health and Selfies". Take a
photo of yourself holding a piece of card with ‘I Love Red Tape - it's better
than bloody bandages!’ then tweet your Health and Selfie to your own MP, to
David Cameron, to DWP and BIS Ministers, to local press, etc. using the
hashtags #HealthandSelfie and #IWMD14. They
would like everyone to tweet the same slogan ‘I/We Love Red Tape – it’s better
than bloody bandages’ #IWMD14 at least once, and then any other slogans you can
make up that say what you think to support good health and safety regulation. Suggested slogans to hold in your Health and
Selfie - which you can also use as tweets:
#HealthandSelfie I love red tape- it’s better than bloody
bandages #IWMD14
#HealthandSelfie I'd rather be wrapped in red tape than
bloody bandages #IWMD14
#HealthandSelfie I'm working for a living, not to die
#IWMD14
#HealthandSelfie I go to work to pay the bills, not to die
#IWMD14
#HealthandSelfie I go to work to support my children, not to
die #IWMD14
#HealthandSelfie I'm 2young2die@work so I love red tape
#IWMD14
#HealthandSelfie Don't work me to death: Don’t cut health
and safety #IWMD14
#HealthandSelfie Work should be a means to an end, not the
end #IWMD14
#HealthandSelfie No-one should die earning a living@work
#IWMD14
#Healthand Selfie “Employers I’m (Joe Bloggs is) 2young2die@work Protect me with red tape at
work!’ #IWMD14
#Healthand Selfie ‘Don’t work me to death’ #IWMD14
#Healthand Selfie ‘Prime Minister: we’d rather be wrapped in
Red Tape than bloody bandages, stop deregulating health and safety law’ #IWMD14
#Healthand Selfie ‘I only work here, my family want me back
safe at the end of my shift ’ #IWMD14
Please take part in International Workers Memorial Day, I
know I will. I will be thinking of my dad in particular and I’ll have a photo
of him and a slogan to suit for my “HealthandSelfie”
Remember the dead and fight for the living!
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