A road safety company has been slapped with a £660,000 fine after a welder suffered catastrophic facial injuries and was left blind by an exploding oil drum.

Andrew Foster was using a plasma cutter to remove the lid from what he believed was an empty and clean 45-gallon drum when it exploded and the lid struck him directly in the face.

The dad-of-two, from Sheerness, was a welder fabricator for Kent-based Highway Care Ltd at the time of the accident in 2012.

As result of the explosion, he sustained catastrophic and multiple life-threatening and life-changing injuries.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the 40-year-old lost his sight in both eyes and his face and jaw are now held together by titanium plates.

Mr Foster had to be put into an induced coma by consultants at King’s College Hospital, in London, and he woke from his ordeal a month later.

He still cannot remember the blast and has had to have nine operations - and is likely to undergo many more.

A bleed on his brain also led to short-term memory problems and his speech is affected by a hole in his mouth.

Mr Foster had been employed by the business, which manufactures road safety and road closure equipment, since 2007 and worked at its sites in Detling Hill, Maidstone, and Dolphin Park in nearby Sittingbourne.

HGVs were also maintained and repaired on the site and drums would arrive containing clean oil.

The court heard Mr Foster was the only welder at the Detling site in August 2012.

His supervisor on the day of the accident had no welding experience and was ignorant of hot-work tool risks. He told investigators he considered Mr Foster to be his friend.

The practice of cutting off lids on emptied, de-greased drums to use for collecting scrap metal for recycling was regarded as a maintenance task at the site.

But Shauna Ritchie, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, told the court despite the dangerous practice being well-known and occurring lots of times, it should never have been performed.

She said Highway Care failed to identify, risk assess and control the practice.

She added: “The prosecution case is that at the time the incident took place, and beforehand, there was no safe system of work in place for using the plasma cutter for cutting drums which had previously contained flammable liquids.

“It was not an activity that should have ever been carried out because one of the risks of using hot-work tools such as plasma cutters is the risk of explosion. The prosecution say it would never be safe to cut drums in this way.

“There was a lack of effective training for the cutting activity because it (training) would have made it clear this was an activity that was dangerous and should never have been performed.”

Highway Care Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees at the two sites and, in particular, failing to provide such information, instruction, training and supervision in relation to use of a plasma cutter.

The firm, which had a turnover of £18 million in 2015, was prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Imposing the fine and ordering the firm to pay £33,358 court costs, Judge Charles Macdonald QC said the risks of using hot-work tools were numerous and documented in Health and Safety leaflets.

He added that even the tiniest of oil residues could create a build up of hydrocarbon gas in the confined area of the drum and be ignited.

He said it was simply luck such an explosion had not happened before and said this was a truly tragic case.

Judge Macdonald said: “Andrew Foster suffered terrible injuries to the bones of his face and he is blind. His life and that of his family has been utterly devastated.

“His stalwart and loyal wife Donna has become his carer and nurse while also working and looking after their children, who have also been deeply affected. He has a long-life dependency on third parties for his basic needs.”

He also read impact statements from the couple.

He added: “It is impossible to sum these up adequately in a few words but I approach my task in the full knowledge of the harm that has befallen Mr Foster and his family.

“The defendant company must, however, receive a sentence that deters others and therefore protects other workers and it must punish the company in a way that it feels the financial impact economically.

“That will bring home to both management and shareholders the need to comply with health and safety legislation.”

The court was told the board of directors at the business had no knowledge the practice of using plasma cutters to cut off oil drum lids was being carried out and accepted it was dangerous and unnecessary.

"It has affected me, my wife and my children, the whole family, so much so, you can't even begin to imagine..." - Andrew Foster

However, the prosecution said it was not an isolated incident and happened on lots of occasions.

Miss Ritchie added: “Every time Mr Foster used the plasma cutter to remove the lid from a drum which had previously contained flammable liquid, that risk existed and an explosion could have occurred and caused the injuries of the type that he suffered.

“This caused catastrophic injuries but could have caused death and injured other employees on site. It led to life-changing injuries that will affect Andrew Foster and his family for the rest of his life.”

The court heard Mr Foster had just finished an afternoon tea break when he began to cut off the drum lid.

He had told two other workers of his task, something he said he had also carried out on previous occasions and while working at the firm's Sittingbourne base between 2007 and 2011.

Mr Foster cut the lid off one drum and then moved onto another drum that had previously been leaking.

“He believed it was empty and clean, the oil having been siphoned off by another colleague.

“He didn’t notice any residue and he doesn’t actually now remember anything of what happened until he woke up in hospital about a month later and learnt the drum had exploded.

“The lid had hit him in the face and was found on the other side of the bay in the yard.”

The directors wrote a letter to the court, expressing their remorse and regret at an incident they described as an exception and not the rule.

Dominic Kay, defending, said there was a feeling of complete devastation within the company for what happened.

He told the court Highway Care put safety before profit and that it was not a case of the company allowing what he said was an "infrequent" practice to take place or instructing it to be done.

He added: “The company accepts entirely that it was dangerous, unnecessary and should have been spotted, and the fact it wasn’t spotted was a failing on the company’s behalf.”

After the hearing, Mr Foster, 40, spoke of the impact the accident had on him and his family.

He said: "It has affected me, my wife and my children, the whole family, so much so, you can't even begin to imagine. My children have had to undergo counselling. It is still affecting them now."

The former junior rugby team coach said the incident had changed his life "dramatically" and robbed him of his independence.

He continued: "I am reliant on the people around me, including my wife, for the simpler things, like finding something to eat or posting a letter.

"I'm pleased the company has been hit with a fine and hope this does not happen to anyone else.

"It raises awareness of what can go wrong and how easily it can go wrong and and how ignorant some staff can be.

"And I hope this prevents someone else from being injured the same way I have."