British Telecom plc (BT) has been fined £500,000 after an engineer fell 7m from a loft in London in May 2011.

The Old Bailey heard how a BT engineer, David Spurgeon, was fixing a telephone fault in the roof void of a residential block of flats in Tower Hamlets, East London.

Mr Spurgeon was working alone when he lost his balance and fell through the ceiling, landing on a concrete stairwell, sustaining his serious injuries.

HSE investigators found there were a number of “management failures” by BT, including inadequate planning of work taking place near fragile surfaces and checking that the work was carried out safely.

Blaming engineers unnecessary, misplaced and unfortunate

British Telecom plc, of London, was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Safety and Health at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £500,000 and ordered to pay costs of £98,913.51.

In his sentencing remarks the judge criticised BT for attempting to blame its own engineers for the incident. He described their approach as being ‘not necessary, misplaced and unfortunate’ .

HSE inspector Kevin Smith said:

“David Spurgeon is lucky to be alive. There were a number of failures of health and safety management by BT which related to planning the work, supervision, and checking it was being carried out safely.

Work at height needs to be properly planned, and this incident could have been prevented.”

 

Total Access Training
 

Total Access (UK) Limited endeavours to remain at the forefront of its profession as the UK’s leading Confined Space and Height Safety training provider.

 

Our highly experienced instructors, together with state of the art facilities simulating realistic working environments sets us apart from other providers.

What is Working at Height?

"Any work on, below, or above ground level where there is risk of personal injury through falling and/or a potential risk to people below the work site being injured by falling objects.”

 

Why is training required?

Anybody working at height must comply with the Working at Height Regulations 2005. The Working at Height Regulations stipulate that we must avoid working at height where possible.  Employers must do all that is reasonably practicable to prevent anyone falling.

Total Access (UK) Ltd carries out Working at Height training for a wide range of industries: 

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