Companies sentenced after worker’s fatal fall
Posted: November 30, 2012
Posted in: Employer Negligence Falls from Heights Head and Brain Injuries Workplace Injuries Wrongful & Accidental Death
A major construction company and a concrete structures firm have been sentenced after a worker died following a fall from a height at a Swansea building site.
A self-employed father of two, Russell Samuel, was contracted to work as a scaffolder at the Swansea site. He was dismantling a scaffold ladder access platform ready for the installation of the roof and staircase on the fourth floor, when he fell approximately 19 metres to the ground below, narrowly missing a carpenter who was working directly below.
Mr Samuel suffered multiple injuries during his fall, including a fractured skull. He was taken to Morriston Hospital, but died two days later.
The HSE investigation found the defendants had inadequate and ineffective health and safety management arrangements in place and there was little or no communication, information, and instruction provided to its workforce.
The management team on site was not adequately trained in health and safety, despite repeated warnings by its health and safety consultants, and this led to persistent and systematic failures to control work at height risks on the site.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Anne-Marie Orrells said:
“Falls from height are still the biggest killer in the construction industry, and this is the tragic reality of what can happen when adequate arrangements are not in place to manage health and safety.”
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