'Directors must face scrutiny over deaths'

Barry Shaw died on Saturday in what police described as a "crushing accident" at Corus's Scunthorpe steel mill. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been called in to investigate the second death at the steelworks in four months.

Unite organiser Terry Pye expressed "shock" at Mr Shaw's death, adding: "It is obviously upsetting for both the family and the workers and I would demand a thorough explanation of what happened."

Steelworker Thomas Standerline had previously been crushed to death on April 23 as he worked in the mill's casting plant.

The investigation into Mr Standerline's death is still continuing, but health and safety campaigners insisted that Corus bosses needed to be urgently "held to account" to prevent further tragedy.

Hazards campaigners Mick Holder and Hilda Palmer demanded to know "when will senior directors of companies such as Corus be held personally accountable for their serial killing and injuring workers?"

Ms Palmer and Mr Holder explained: "Corus's abysmal health and safety record is illustrated by the 16 separate entries in the HSE's prosecutions database which relate to death and injury.

"These incidents include the Port Talbot furnace explosion where Stephen Galsworthy, Andrew Hutin and Len Radford were all killed in 2001."

Corus has been hit with several fines for killing and injuring workers, with a huge fine of £1.3 million - plus £1.7min legal costs - being imposed on the firm in December 2006 for the killing of the three Port Talbot workers.

However, the Hazards campaigners pointed out that while such a large fine "was heralded as exemplary, it has not stopped Corus from committing more offences and injuring and killing more workers.

"Fines may look large, but are a drop in the ocean of the company's turnover and profits and act as no real deterrent, as Corus has shown again and again," they asserted.