The trial of the explosion at the Baumgarten natural gas station (Gänserndorf district) in December 2017, which left one dead and 22 injured, ended on Wednesday at the Korneuburg regional court with convictions for four people. It imposed suspended prison terms of ten months each. Under the Association Responsibility Act, a conditional fine of 125,000 euros has been imposed on a company. The decisions are not final.
Eight of the twelve suspects were acquitted of negligently causing a conflagration. There were also no guilty pleas for three other companies. According to the judge, the large number of injured and the high degree of material damage were considered aggravating when determining the sentence. The orderly lifestyle of the suspect and the good behavior since the crime therefore had a mitigating effect. The length of the procedure was also discussed at the meeting.
The explosion at the natural gas station took place on December 12, 2017. There was damage of about 50 million euros. The series of lawsuits at the court of Korneuburg, the end of which was postponed not least because of the corona pandemic, started on December 13, 2021.
Filter incorrectly disassembled
At the center of the cause was a filter separator. Employees of a piping technology company are said to have dismantled the device that filters moisture from gas pipes in a factory in Carinthia in 2016. According to the Public Prosecution Service, a safety-relevant part – a central safety lever – has been disassembled improperly. In 2017, the filter separator was installed as part of the system expansion at the Gas Connect Austria (GCA) station.
When the device was filled with natural gas on December 12, 2017, the 500 kilogram lid tore off and was thrown onto an opposing filter separator, the closure of which also opened. Gas escaped under high pressure and an explosion followed.
Technician killed in explosion
According to the public prosecutor, the cause was not only the missing central safety lever, but also a central screw that had not been tightened according to plan and an illegally screwed pressure cap on the quick-release. The device is said to have been checked by employees of the TÜV (Technical Monitoring Association) Austria Services without a missing part being noticed. The JSA had outsourced part of the testing tasks to a service provider. The 32-year-old TÜV technician was killed in the explosion. In general, the Public Prosecution Service criticized unclearly arranged responsibilities and the lack of documentation about the processes.
When the judgment was pronounced, the principle of legitimate expectations, to which the parties concerned had referred, was repeatedly mentioned. However, the judge stressed that this “cannot be applied” when several people are working together. Four employees of Bilfinger Bohr- und Rohrtechnik GmbH have not been legally sentenced to ten months’ suspended prison terms. It was a project manager, a workshop manager, a head of quality assurance and a site manager who did not check the filter separator in Baumgarten.
Bilfinger Bohr- und Rohrtechnik GmbH is also the company that received a conditional fine of 25 daily rates of 5,000 euros. The three other companies – GCA, TÜV and an engineering firm – were acquitted. At Bilfinger, the court found violations of performance, monitoring and control obligations. The high degree of danger was also perceived as aggravating and the introduction of a four-eyes principle to prevent similar incidents was soothing.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
