14/04/2010 - Fatal fall company fined £200k
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation has led to a plant hire company being fined £200,000 after it failed to follow its own guidelines and an employee fell five metres to his death.
The accident, which led to the death of Phillip Pearce, happened after Ashtead Plant Hire Co Ltd trading as APlant failed to follow the regulations for working at height in 2006.
The company based at Dalton Ave in Birchwood Park, Warrington, has admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 197 at Maidstone Crown Court and has been ordered to pay £15,698.30 in costs .
Mr Pearce, aged 55, from the Medway area, had worked at the company's depot at Tovil, Maidstone as a fitter for less then three months before the fatal accident on August 16. The depot where the incident occurred provides portable accommodation units to the construction industry.
Mr Pearce's job required people to wear a safety harness and inertia reel line and climb a secured ladder. If they slipped or fell, the line would lock and prevent a serious fall.
HSE's investigation found that workers at the depot had not been issued with this kit or been trained to use it and most did not know the company had a special procedure for doing this work.
With two units stacked on top of each other, Mr Pearce climbed onto the top of the stack to help attach lifting chains so that the top unit could be lifted down. He fell more than five metres and died at the scene.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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