A British court on Friday fined Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus 1.3 million pounds ($2.54 million) over an explosion at one of its plants in Wales in 2001 which killed three workers and injured a dozen others, according to Reuters. Swansea Crown Court fined the company for breaching health and safety laws and also ordered it to pay costs of 1.744 million pounds over the accident, Britain's Health and Safety Executive said on its website. Stephen Galsworthy, Andrew Hutin and Len Radford were killed by an explosion caused by water in a furnace coming into sudden contact with hot material in Nov. 2001. As the water turned to steam it expanded and blew apart a confined vessel, showering workers with molton metal. Corus was charged with failing to ensure worker safety, both staff and contracters. Responding to the ruling Corus said it regretted the loss of life and the "grievous injuries". "During the hearing, Corus pleaded guilty in respect of our failings under the Health and Safety at Work Act," board member Rauke Henstra said. "We have always maintained that an explosion of this type and magnitude that occurred was neither foreseen nor was it foreseeable and this has been accepted by the prosecution," he said in a statement. The Health and Safety Executive, which brought the prosecution, said the fine was "insignificant" compared with the grief of the dead men's families. "This was systematic corporate management failure at the Port Talbot works. Proper management attention may have broken the chain which led to the explosion," said Terry Rose, the head of the Health and Safety Executive in Wales. "I hope Corus, and indeed, the iron and steel industry worldwide learn from Port Talbot and make sure that those lessons are put into practice in their management systems," Rose said in a statement. Corus shares -- which had risen on Monday after Brazilian steelmaker CSN said it had agreed to buy Corus for 4.9 billion pounds, trumping an offer from India's Tata Steel -- were trading at 531.5 pence, down 1.12 percent at 17.13 GMT.
