62-year-old-William Taylor, a worker for Laing O’Rourke Construction Limited, suffered broken ribs and an injured spine after he plummeted to the ground while supervising the fitting of landings and staircases on a high rise construction site last year.
According to the Health & Safety Executive, Taylor was injured after he made an error in judgment. He unhooked 3 of the 4 chains from the landing gantry before it was to be craned and since one chain was still hooked, it caused the gantry to topple and subsequently his fall.
After being under medical care for 49 days, Taylor is back to his job now, and fully recovered.
The firm agreed to having violated section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. According to HSE, the accident site was not properly fitted with safety measures, causing the incident.
The company offered its apology to the victim and called it a regrettable incident. It also said that this was the first such incident that happened in the company’s history, and they learned from their mistake, and have taken steps to prevent future occurrences.
The judge said the firm’s mistakes had been noteworthy but unexpected. The firm had to shell out £10,000 in costs.
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