Kirkby Sonae factory deaths: Firms admit safety breaches

Two companies have admitted breaking heath and safety laws after two men were killed at a chipboard factory.

Thomas Elmer, 27, and James Bibby, 24, died at the Sonae chipboard factory in Kirkby, Merseyside, when a conveyor belt started automatically in 2010.

Sonae and Metso Paper, which carried out maintenance work for Sonae, admitted failing to ensure the safety of their employees.

They will be sentenced on Friday or next week at Liverpool Crown Court.

The court heard the two colleagues, both from Rossendale, had been repairing a worn sprocket on the conveyor belt when it dragged them into a large silo.

There was no emergency stop button on the belt and the men died from "catastrophic injuries".

The belt could start on its own on a signal from a computer if it were not isolated from its power source, the hearing was told.

Neither Sonae or Metso (now known as Valma Ltd) produced a risk assessment for the work to be carried out on the day the two men were killed.

The prosecution said Sonae's "generic" risk assessment only mentioned the isolation of machinery from a power source "in passing".

An inquest jury previously found there was a lack of training in how to use the factory's equipment.

The Sonae site, which opened in 2000, was badly damaged by a large fire in August 2011 in which a demolition worker - James Dennis Kay, 62, from Heywood, Greater Manchester - died.

The plant closed in September 2012 with the loss of 220 jobs.