British Telecom plc (BT) have been fined £500,000 after an engineer fell seven metres from a loft in London, breaking his back and his ankles.
David Spurgeon was fixing a telephone fault in the roof void of a residential block of flats in Tower Hamlets when he lost his balance and fell through the ceiling, landing on a concrete stairwell, sustaining his serious injuries.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident found there were a number of management failures by BT including inadequate planning of work taking place near fragile surfaces and checking that it was carried out safely.
The company were found guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 197d, fined £500,000, and were ordered to pay costs of £98,913.51. The judge criticised BT for attempting to blame its own engineers for the incident. Their approached was described as "not necessary, misplaced, and unfortunate."
HSE inspector Kevin Smith said, "David Spurgeon is lucky to be alive. There were a number of failures of health and safety management by BT which related to planning the work, supervision, and checking it was being carried out safely. Work at height needs to be properly planned, and this incident could have been prevented."
