Director could face life in jail if convicted
A British geotechnical firm is the first to be charged with gross negligence causing death under the United Kingdom's 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act.
Alexander Wright, a 27-year-old junior geologist with Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings, was killed when the pit he was working in near Stroud collapsed in September 2008.
Peter Eaton, Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings' director, is charged with gross negligence manslaughter and faces a life sentence if convicted. The firm faces an unlimited fine if convicted.
Both Eaton and the company also face a number of health and safety charges.
The Corporate Manslaughter Act was brought in to make it easier to bring companies to justice when a worker dies on the job.
An organization is guilty of corporate manslaughter if the way in which senior management organizes or manages the organization's activities causes a person's death and amounts to a gross breach of the organization's duty of care owed to the person who died.
