08.09.2015

Leaving the platform proves fatal and costs £435,000

Two UK companies have been found a total of £435,000 following a fatal fall when a man climbed out of a boom lift to carry out a job.

The incident, occurred in Exeter, Devon, in November 2011, when glazing specialist London Fenestration Trades, working for contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, was working on the glass façade of the Debenhams department store in the town.

Philip Evans and another man employed by London Fenestration were working from an articulated boom lift to fit a new glazing panel over one of the store entrances. The size of the new panel did not allow the upper and lower fittings to be installed from the one platform, so Evans climbed out of the platform onto a glass canopy over the entrance, in order to install the lower fittings, while his colleague used the boom to reach the upper fittings.
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It seems that this job required better planning or two platforms - note the missing canopy panel

Evans then walked along the canopy and did not see that a panel was missing - from an earlier, uncompleted job – and fell though the gap, dropping 4.5 metres to the ground. He died later in hospital.

The two companies were each fined £200,000, plus £17, 790 costs, although London Fenestration is now in liquidation.