The Crown Prosecution Service is to consider whether to prosecute directors of the contractors involved in the Avonmouth bridge collapse in 1999, in which four workers died.
This follows an inquest into the deaths of the men this week when a verdict of unlawful killing was returned.

Individual directors of the joint venture partnership of Costain and Kvaerner Cleveland Bridge may now face prosecution.

David Bergman, director of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, said that whenever an inquest verdict of unlawful killing was returned it was standard procedure for the CPS to review a decision not to prosecute for manslaughter.

He said it was unlikely that the CPS would proceed with corporate manslaughter charges as the firms had been convicted of health and safety offences. But he said this did not preclude the possibility of individual directors or managers being charged with the offence.

Andrew Rogers, 40, Jeffrey Williams, 42, Ronald Hill, 39 and Paul Stewart, 23, died in the accident.