The construction industry needs to wake up to health and safety issues after two companies were fined a total of £87,000 for inadequate health and safety measures which led to the death of an employee, an HSE inspector said.
Krypton Health Construction and Controlled Flame Boilers received fines in the Central Criminal Court in London following a Health & Safety Executive investigation into the death of pipe fitting engineer.
On 10 April 2002 Robert Burchett, aged 40, sustained fatal injuries following a fall of 9 metres from an unprotected edge on a site where an operating theatre was being built at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore.
Both companies pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSW Act) at an earlier hearing at City of London Magistrates on 6 September 2004.
Inspector Giles Meredith from HSE’s Construction Division, who investigated the fatality said: “The risks of working at height and lifting are both well understood and well known in the construction industry and yet still more workers die in this manner than from any other construction activity.
“If we are to reverse this then the industry must wake up and do more at every level,” he said.
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