Three Dundee companies fined after worker falls through skylight

Three companies based in Dundee, Scotland have been fined a total of £336000 after a worker fell 6.5m through a roof light onto a concrete floor.

Christopher Carson, who was 23 at the time, competed as a floor gymnast at national level and was also a coach in the sport. As his day job, he worked as an electrician's labourer for Robert A.S. Crockett and Partners Ltd.

Crockett and Partners had been contracted by Electroguard Security Systems to fit a lighting system as part of a larger project at Dundee Cold Stores Ltd, Kingsway West, Dundee.

Dundee Sheriff's Court heard that on 3 October 2008, Mr Carson was attaching cables to the wall of the building in order to install the new security system. One of the cables he needed was on the roof of the building so he decided to use a mobile platform to get to the roof level and then walk across the roof to retrieve it. While on the roof he stepped on a skylight and fell through it, hitting machinery in the building below, before landing on the concrete floor.

Mr Carson suffered a number of fractures to his back as well as fractures and dislocation to his left shoulder. He also suffered a puncture wound to his lower back from a drill bit which was in his pocket when he fell.

An investigation by the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Dundee Cold Stores Ltd had not asked either Electroguard Security Systems or Robert A.S. Crockett and Partners Ltd for a written risk assessment for the work they had been asked to carry out. Nor was there a method statement from either company as to how the work was to be carried out safely.

Among other failings by the three companies, the investigation revealed that Robert A.S. Crockett and Partners Ltd had not given Mr Carson any training or information that would have helped him identify that the roof could be fragile.

At Dundee Sheriff Court on 25 January 2012 Robert A.S. Crockett and Partners Ltd was fined £66000, Electroguard Security Systems of Strathmore Avenue, Dundee was fined £135000, and Dundee Cold was fined £135000 after all pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

After sentencing, HSE Inspector Harry Bottesch said, "Mr Carson has suffered significant and lasting injuries because his employer left him to work at height unsupervised and without clear instructions about what work he was expected to do and how he was to do it. Nor was there any safe system of work in place to allow him to work safely at height.

"Where roof lights are present, it should be assumed that the area is fragile to walk on. If these three companies had thought about the obvious risks involved, and planned the work properly then Mr Carson's injuries - and the impact they have had on his life ever since - could have been avoided."

In 2010/11, 13 people in the UK died and there were more than 760 serious injuries after work-related falls from height.