East Sussex County Council has been fined £50,000 after a man with Down’s syndrome died after he accidentally swallowed dishwasher fluid during an outing.
Colin Woods, 60, thought he was drinking orange squash but his digestive organs were gradually eroded by the sodium hydroxide substance.
It left him unable to eat, and he had lost almost half his body weight by the time he died on April 7 2006, 16 months after swallowing the fluid on an outing with the council-run St Nicholas Centre in Lewes, East Sussex, on December 7 2004.
Judge Michael Lawson QC fined the authority £50,000 and ordered it to pay costs totalling £27,670.
Lewes Crown Court heard that members were encouraged to make their own drinks up at the St Nicholas Centre to consume afterwards at the agricultural college.
But inquiries afterwards found the offending bottle was of virtually indistinguishable appearance to the bottles of orange squash consumed at the centre.
An HSE investigation found no hazardous substance controls were in place at the centre and no data sheet was maintained for the detergent.
The county council pleaded guilty to failing to store a hazardous substance in such a way as to prevent serious risk at Brighton Magistrates’ Court in January.
Source: Claims Management Magazine
