Lessons from Longford: The Trial

Contents Includes:

• This 68 page study examines these legal requirements and the trial, the first ever OHS trial held in a supreme court. Specifically, the report address a number of questions, including:
• Why did the Judge say so emphatically "What happened was no mere accident"?
• Are OHS offences crimes?
• How effective was Esso’s defence strategy?
• What does "practically preventable" mean?
• Why did Esso not blame its control room operators at the trial, when it has blamed them at the Royal Commission?
• Did the trial produce any findings about the causes of the disaster?
• Would Esso have been at risk of conviction under the corporate manslaughter legislation which was proposed for Victoria?

Lessons from Longford was published in 2000 and examines the findings of the Royal Commission into the Esso gas plant explosion at Longford, Victoria, in September 1998. It is written by an expert witness at the Commission hearings. Two men were killed in the Longford accident, which ripped through the Esso plant with devastating consequences. Melbourne’s gas supply was cut off for two weeks, causing disruption on a wide scale.