Port Firm Fined £650,000 for Health, Safety Breach
A port operator has today (Monday 29 September) pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches, following the deaths of three crew members of a tug which capsized on the River Clyde in 2007. Clydeport Operations Ltd, who were sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh, received fines totalling £650,000. In December 2007 the Flying Phantom was one of three tugs assisting the 70,000-tonne cargo ship Red Jasmine as it made its way along the River Clyde. As they approached the Erskine Bridge, the Flying Phantom was secured to the bow of the Red Jasmine, which was transporting animal feed. Just before 6pm, in thick fog, the Flying Phantom called the ship to say they had grounded and the pilot instructed the tug to let go the line. That was the last communication.
Coal Transhipment Terminal Finds New Cure for Old Conveyor Spillage Problems
Neary four million tons of coal passed in and out of Scotland's Hunterston Terminal in 1997, drawn in large part by a reputation for fast turnaround that has made this one of the biggest seaport bulk transhipment facilities in Western Europe. But, building that reputation wasn't easy. Moving coal at 2,000 to 3,000 tons per hour (tph), through some five miles of conveyors linked by multiple transfer points, the terminal had long been plagued by spillage problems that laid a costly burden on the maintenance staff and threatened penalty charges from delays in ship loading/unloading. The search for a more reliable way to keep the coal on the belts finally ended when maintenance management found a new system for keeping skirt rubber in place at the transfers and more easily adjusted.
