Compensation news
10/02/2011

Blackburn steeplejack died from work-related injury

The family of a Blackburn steeplejack, who died as a result of a work-related injury, and a colleague who survived by clinging on to a ladder, may be eligible for compensation after their employer and a scaffolding repair company were found to be at fault for the industrial accident.

A crown court hearing in Manchester was told that the two men were taking down scaffolding after repairing brickwork at the top of a disused mill chimney in Bolton when the steel framework they were on collapsed, throwing one of the workers 50 metres to his death in June 2007.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that the scaffolding had been damaged on a previous job and been sent to a specialist repairer, Ken Brogden Ltd, which had welded over the weakened joints rather than making a more thorough repair.

The HSE inspectors said that although the most likely cause of the scaffolding collapse was inadequate anchor fixings to the brickwork at the top of the Edwardian chimney, which was in poor condition, the weak joint repairs could also have been implicated.

The repair company was fined £10,000 with costs of £16,000 for its part in the 40-year-old worker's death while his employer, Bailey International Steeplejack Company Ltd, of Macclesfield, was fined £75,000 with £80,000 costs after both firms admitted failures of health and safety regulations.

More than 4,000 people were injured and 12 died in workplace accidents as a result of falls last year, according to HSE, many of which could become subject to compensation claims.