Satellite TV installation firm Foxtel Ltd has been prosecuted following the death of a worker who fell while carrying out work on a roof. Engineer Noel Corbin suffered fatal head injuries after falling 13.5 metres from a four-storey house onto a side patio in Belsize Park, London on 3 February 2008.
The Old Bailey heard safety equipment found in Mr Corbin's van was unsuitable for the type of work he was undertaking. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the incident exposed a number of failings at Foxtel, including failure to ensure work at height was properly planned, organised and monitored. Mr Corbin was working on a satellite TV dish on the property's roof apex and had accessed the roof via a dormer window. Before his fall he was also seen working on another satellite dish located on a flat roof. Evidence suggests he fell from the flat roof itself, or while walking across the sloping roof.
Charles Linfoot, HSE inspector said, "Mr Corbin's death has had a devastating effect on his family, made all the more tragic by the face that the incident was easily preventable. Owing to the foreseeable risk of falling and the lack of suitable access equipment, the work should have been cancelled. Foxtel should have carried out a full site-specific risk assessment, planning and organising the work to be executed in a safe manner. It is not acceptable to simply delegate health and safety duties to employees without adequate instruction, training, monitoring or supervision. I hope the conviction of Foxtel sends a clear message to other installation companies, that where access to residential properties from height is required, companies are ultimately responsible for carrying out a full site-specific risk assessment."
Foxtel Ltd, based in Essex, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. However, the firm is no longer trading and was shown to have no assets. As a result, the Court fined them £1.
Falls from height remain the most common cause of workplace fatality. In 2008/09 there were 35 fatalities, 4,654 major injuries and a further 7,065 injuries that caused the injured person to be off work for three days or more.
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