Building company fined after worker falls through skylight
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A building company has been fined after pleading guilty to an accident that caused a 55 year old employee fell through a skylight roof.
The company were fined £66000 of which £6000 was converted into compensation to be paid directly to the victim.
The judge over seeing the case described commented that this was “an exceptional case” because of legal wranglings between the building company and the insurance company which meant that the injured worker may not receive a settlement from the insurance company
The Armenian national, Petros Pogosyan that fell through a skylight from a height of 4.5 meters onto a concrete floor from a unit roof on a London industrial estate while working for Race Interiors Ltd on 18 January 2013. The accident which happened at Unit 1, Roseberry Industrial Estate, London and suffered a fractured back
Pogosyan who suffered the heavy fall is now partially deaf and has damage to his brain, is also paralysed from the waist down and psychologically traumatized which means he will need personal care for the rest of his life, and will never work again due to the accident.
HSE inspector Simon Hester commented: “This tragedy should not have happened. Nobody should work on a roof without proper planning.It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that all reasonable precautions are taken to prevent a fall. Mr Pogosyan could have been killed by his fall and now suffers massive and irreversible life-changing injuries.”
Due to his accident Pogosyan’s wife has had to stop work to care for him full time and the couple have been living on state benefits .
Judge May QC described the accident as highly foreseeable and decided that the company fell far short of the required standards for managing risks at work.
Race Interiors Limited appeared at court and was fined £60,000 with costs of £7,784 after pleading guilty to safety breaches laid out by the HSE.
