July 06, 2010
A British company and its directors have been fined almost £75,000 after a member of the public died on an unsupervised building site.
PIB (UK) LTD was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after 24-year-old Edward Dean died in June 2008.
PIB workers arrived at their Brighton building site one morning to find Mr Dean dead on a basement floor. Lewes Crown Court heard how Mr Dean had been out partying with friends the night before when he entered the unsecured site, tripped over an unprotected edge and died from the resulting fall.
The HSE prosecuted PIB (UK) Ltd for breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, regarding the duty to reasonably protect members of the public. The company pleaded guilty and was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,500.
Two of the company’s directors, John Blankson and Steven Moore also faced legal action over health and safety breaches at the site.
Mr Blankson, who was also the client for the project, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 20(1) (a) (b) and (c) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. He was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,465.
Mr Moore was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,500 after pleading guilty to breaching section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974; he was also disqualified from directing any company for five years.
"Unmanned construction sites should be properly secured such that people and especially children cannot unknowingly wander into places of danger,” warned HSE Inspector Denis Bodger.
“Edward Dean should never have been able to enter the site where there were unprotected edges. It was both illegal and irresponsible for PIB (UK) Ltd and the company directors to disregard the importance of security on this site, leaving obvious hazards that in this tragic case resulted in the unnecessary loss of a young life."
HSE figures show that falls are the largest single cause of fatal accidents on construction sites throughout the UK. In response, HSE Inspectors are calling on all building contractors and clients to undertake training in relevant health and safety procedures and to recognise safe practice.
