Over the Atlantic on my way to Gartner's Risk & Security Summit I finally found the time to read the German weekly "Zeit". They reported on the findings and judgment of a Turin court regarding the responsibilities of the management of ThyssenKrupps Italian steel fabrication site. On December 6th, 2007 a fire during the sparsely staffed night shift lead to the explosion of a oil duct and the death of 7 workers who were burned by the hot oil. I remembered reading about this accident then.
Now the jury in Turin draconically sentenced six responsible managers to 10 to 16 years in prison due to homicide with indirect intent and the company to 3 m EURO in fines and reparations. The jury stated that in the site that was planned to be closed the simplest safety features had not been ensured. Facts like missing emergency phones and partly inoperable fire extinguishers tell that management accepted the risk of accidents with deathly effects. Obviously the line of the defense that the workers had reacted falsely was not accepted as well as the fact that ThyssenKrupp had settled with the relatives on a record sum of 13 m EURO already in 2008.
The days after the accident have been an example how not to manage such a crisis and of underestimating the political fallout. But regardless of what can be learned about how to handle risk incidents we have to see that as a further signal that the times are gone were the decision to simply accept (or ignore) a risk is viewed acceptable by public and legal institutions. In this case the court held the managers of the site personally accountable not only for the results of their doings but also their non-doings.
