星空传媒

Three Dundee companies have been fined a total of 拢336,000 after a worker fell 6.5m through a roof light onto a concrete floor.

Christopher Carson, who was 23 at the time, competed as a floor gymnast at national level and was also a coach in the sport. As his day job, he was working as an electrician鈥檚 labourer for Robert A.S. Crockett and Partners.

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, Kingsway West, Dundee.

Dundee Sheriff鈥檚 Court heard that on 3 October 2008, Carson was attaching cables when he decided to use a mobile platform to get to the roof level and then walk across the roof to retrieve one of the cables.

Once 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.

Carson required surgery and physiotherapy and is still recovering after suffering a number of fractures to his back as well as fractures and dislocation to his left shoulder. He also suffered a puncture wound to his lower back from a drill bit which was in his pocket when he fell.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Dundee Cold Stores had not asked either Electroguard Security Systems or Robert A.S. Crockett and Partners for a written risk assessment for the work they had been asked to carry out. Nor was there a method statement from either company as to how the work was to be carried out safely.

Although Electroguard had carried out a site risk assessment for working at height, this was not specific to the job at Dundee Cold Stores. This risk assessment was known to its employees, but not to those of Crockett and Partners, who had