THE organisers of last year's ill-fated Glasgow Garden Festival
fireworks display have been cleared of any blame for the explosion which
injured six people, four of them seriously.
The Health and Safety Executive, which carried out a major inquiry
into the incident, confirmed yesterday that it has recommended that no
action be taken against either Glasgow Garden Festival Company Ltd or
the professional organisers of the display. The procurator-fiscal in
Glasgow has complied with the recommendation.
The HSE report into the accident, which occurred during the festival's
finale on September 26, has concluded that there was no breach of the
Health and Safety at Work Act. The accident occurred when the main
charge of an eight-inch diameter shell exploded within its launching
tube on the ground instead of when the shell was high in the air.
Despite many years of testing similar types of fireworks, the
executive said there was no history of incidents when the launching tube
was unable to contain the force of the explosion. Before the Glasgow
accident it was never considered possible that such extensive damage
could occur.
The investigation confirmed that all the precautions set out in the
code of practice for fireworks displays had been observed. However, the
code was meant to be used with types of fireworks normally available to
the public, and not intended for professionally organised displays.
A spokesman for the executive said: ''As a result of the research work
done the HSE has recognised a need for guidance to be developed on the
standards of precautions which should be adopted during professionally
organised displays and work on the production of such guidance is under
consideration.''
One of the organisers, Mr Alastair Macfarlane, of the Shell Shock
Firework Company, lost a leg in the explosion.
Last night he said at his home in Bramfield, Suffolk: ''I've been very
lucky. I've been given a second chance. It was a bit like stepping on a
mine, but the accident was just a chance in a million.
''We never take risks and we are 100% safety conscious. As far as we
were concerned it was a foregone conclusion that there would be no
charges.''
Mr Macfarlane, 38, a father of two, has organised firework displays
all over the world since 1982. ''I'm already doing office work and I'll
be ready to go to events when our season opens in mid-April,'' he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article