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Simon Jones 24 year-old Simon Jones was killed at Shoreham Docks whilst working for Euromin in 1998. After 2 hours, working in a job that he’d received no training for, his head was crushed by a crane grab.After more than 2 and a half years of direct action and lobbying by the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign, the CPS finally agreed to prosecute Euromin and its manager for manslaughter. In November 2001, the company and manager were found not guilty of manslaughter but were fined for 2 breaches of health and safety regulations. Simon’s parents, Chris and Anne, wanted to know why the government has not yet delivered its promises regarding health and safety. And also why parliamentary time cannot be found, even though Parliament was recalled last week to debate the entirely unpreventable death of a lady of 101 who died peacefully, surrounded by her family.
"I respect her [The Queen Mother] entirely, that the family would grieve, that close friends would grieve. I still grieve for my son and I shall grieve till my dying day… But they could debate from here till doomsday and they would not prevent the death of a single old lady of a hundred plus years.
But if they introduced parliamentary time and legislation to reform the law of manslaughter, and the health and safety laws were properly enforced in this country and they allowed proper parliamentary time and resourcing to this; they could prevent the totally avoidable deaths of three hundred plus people every year in this country, cut off in the prime of their working lives…"
Chris, Anne and Mark wanted to visit the Minister responsible for “revitalising” Health and Safety, Dr. Alan Whitehead, in Southampton.
Mark hoped Dr. Whitehead might have the time to speak to them, or at the very least that Simons parents could present him with the ashes of the Labour manifesto commitment and a commemorative wreath of his promises.
Sadly, Dr. Whitehead did not appear. But, since we recorded the programme, he has agreed to meet with Anne and Chris. We’ll have to wait and see whether the government can shift important debates like Christmas cards and foxhunting and find Parliamentary time for their promised law on Corporate Killing. Meanwhile, 300 people a year are still being killed at work each year.
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