The wife of a rail depot worker who died in a 'tragic' and 'wholly avoidable' accident has described the devastating impact his death has had on their family.
Kevin Mauger, 53, was carrying out maintenance work at Eastleigh rail depot when he was crushed by a six-tonne railway track.
His employer Network Rail has been fined £1.2million over health and safety failings.
Kevin leaves behind five children and eight grandchildren.
His wife Rachael said his death "has left a hole that can never be filled".
'The core of our family'
In a statement, she said: “Kevin died on my dad’s birthday and my birthday is the day after, which was also the day our son had his first child, our youngest grandson. Kevin never got to meet him. This has completely devastated our son.
“Our family have been terribly affected by Kevin’s death. One of our daughters feels she cannot give her own children the Christmas me and Kevin gave her as a child as she now finds Christmas really difficult without her dad. Our eldest daughter has had issues with her car but cannot bear to sell it as her dad helped her buy it.
“Our youngest daughter is devastated her dad will not be there to give her away when she gets married. My second-eldest daughter is still living with me as she feels she cannot leave me. She also no longer enjoys going to watch football as this was something she and her dad did together. Kevin’s passing has had a big impact on all our grandchildren too, who miss spending time with their grandad so much.
“Kevin was the core of our family, he was the one everyone turned to for help. His death has left a hole that can never be filled.”
Accident and failings
On November 30, 2020, the long-standing Network Rail employee was working at the Long Welded Rail Depot off Dutton Lane.
He was cleaning the inside of a butt-welding machine – a machine that welds two sections of rail tracks together.
As the machine’s conveyor system was on the wrong setting, a section of rail track entered the machine while Kevin was inside. He was crushed and died at the scene.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found Network Rail failed to ensure there was a safe system of work while carrying out maintenance on its rail production line. Network Rail also failed to provide an adequate risk assessment for this type of maintenance.
The company has been fined £1.2million after pleading guilty to a single charge of failing to discharge a general health, safety and welfare duty to an employee.
Passing sentence, District Judge Anthony Callaway said isolators on the welding machine were not labelled, leading to potential confusion as to their function.
He also found that there was no written guidance for staff as to what equipment should or should not be isolated, and that the practice for securing the electrical isolation of the machine was not in line with health and safety guidance.
Death was 'wholly avoidable'
HSE inspector Amanda Huff said: “This tragic accident was wholly avoidable, caused by the failure of the company to implement safe systems of work.
“There were no written isolation procedures in place when they were working on this highly dangerous piece of machinery and the risk assessment for carrying out maintenance was inadequate – it failed to identify suitable and sufficient control measures.
“This accident could have been avoided if there had been robust isolation procedures in place but tragically this was not the case.”
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