Man suffered life threatening injuries.
Two firms have been sentenced for safety failings after a Liverpool worker suffered life-threatening injuries when he fell through the roof of a former Cheshire factory.
Peter Tracey was removing asbestos roof sheets from a disused building in Poynton when he stepped onto a fragile panel and fell more than five metres to the concrete floor below. He was airlifted to hospital with critical injuries, before being placed into an induced coma.
Haydock-based Local Asbestos Services Ltd and Leicestershire-based Construction Contracting UK Ltd were both prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found they had allowed workers onto the roof without safety measures in place.
Liverpool Magistrates’ Court was told that 59-year-old Mr Tracey, from Fairfield, was part of a group of labourers hired by Local Asbestos Services to remove the asbestos sheets from the roof of a former factory on Middlewood Road during its demolition.
Construction Contracting was overseeing the project as the principal contractor and both companies had agreed that the sheets would be removed using a cherry picker or scissor lift underneath the roof. This would have allowed workers to cut the bolts holding the sheets in place, without the need for them to go onto the roof itself.
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