A scaffolding firm has been ordered to pay more than £100,000 in fines and costs following the death of an employee who plunged 13m through the skylight of a Skelmersdale warehouse.
Married father-of-one Tony Causby, 42, was helping to dismantle scaffolding when he stepped on to a fragile skylight and fell to the floor below.Atherton-based S&S Scaffolding Ltd was prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) over serious safety breaches following an investigation into the incident at the warehouse on Pennine Way on 14 December 2010.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Mr Causby had helped to erect the scaffolding at the end of October ahead of work to replace damaged cladding and guttering on the roof. He returned to the site on 14 December as part of the dismantling team, although he was employed by S&S Scaffolding as a labourer rather than a scaffolder.
Mr Causby had just returned to the roof with another labourer after his lunch break when he stepped on the skylight, which broke and gave way. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The court was told there were around 80 skylights on one half of the roof, with each one measuring about one metre by two metres. However, the company failed to arrange for covers to be put on the skylights nearest to where its employees were working to prevent them falling through.
S&S Scaffolding Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company, of Arley Way in Atherton, Greater Manchester, was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £31,517 in prosecution costs.
Mr Causby’s partner, Debra Wyley, 44, said: “I miss Tony so much. He was such a big part of our lives and was very close to my family. He often did jobs for them – even my mum and dad who live in Spain.”
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Jacqueline Western said: “Mr Causby died because S&S Scaffolding didn’t do enough to protect him from the risks of working at height, despite being a specialist scaffolding firm and being fully aware of the dangers of falls.
"It would have been relatively easy to cover the fragile skylights near to where the employees were working to prevent anyone from falling through if they accidently stepped on one.
"Alternatively, netting or crash mats could have been provided under the skylights to reduce the chance of a worker being injured if they fell.
"Sadly, none of these options were chosen by S&S Scaffolding and Mr Causby lost his life as a result.”
Information on preventing workplace falls is available at www.hse.gov.uk/falls.