Three Dundee firms have been fined more than £330,000 after a worker fell six and a half metres on to the concrete floor of a warehouse.
Christopher Carson, who was 23 at the time of the incident in 2008, was working as an electrician’s labourer for Robert AS Crockett and Partners Ltd, but also competed as a floor gymnast at national level and was a coach in the sport.
Crockett and Partners had been contracted by Electroguard Security Systems to fit a lighting system as part of a larger project at Dundee Cold Stores Ltd, Kingsway West.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard on Tuesday that on October 3 of that year, Mr Carson was attaching cables to the wall of the building to install the new security system.
One of the cables he needed was on the roof so he decided to use a mobile platform to get to the roof level and then walk across the roof to retrieve it.
On the roof, he realised he needed some clips, and as he was returning to the platform he stood on a roof light and fell through it, hitting machinery in the building below, before landing on the concrete floor.
He suffered fractures to his back and fractures and dislocation to his left shoulder. He also had a puncture wound to his lower back from a drill bit which was in his pocket.
After surgery to reattach three tendons to his shoulder, he had to undergo physiotherapy. He still suffers from chronic pain in his back and shoulder from which he is making a slow recovery.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that Dundee Cold Stores had not asked Electroguard or Robert AS Crockett for a written risk assessment for the work.
Electroguard had carried out a site risk assessment for working at height, but it was not specific to the job. This risk assessment was known to its employees, but not to those of Crockett.
The investigation also revealed that Crockett had not given Mr Carson any training or information that would have helped him identify that the roof could be fragile.
Dundee Cold Stores did not carry out safety inductions before contractors started work on the site, nor were there any safety meetings once work had started.
Robert AS Crockett and Partners Ltd of Scott Street were fined £66,000 after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety law.
Electroguard, of Strathmore Avenue, were fined £135,000, and Dundee Cold Stores, of Whittle Place, Gourdie Industrial Estate, fined £135,000 after they admitted a separate health and safety offence.
A spokesman for Dundee Cold Stores said the company accepted responsibility for the errors it made that contributed to the extremely unfortunate accident.
”The accident happened shortly after the current owners and management took over the factory,” the spokesman added. ”Since the accident there has been significant changes to the health and safety regime in place at the factory.”
No comments were available from Crockett and Partners and Electroguard.