Work at height warning after BT is fined £600,000

British Telecommunications (BT) has been fined £600,000 after two of its employees were seriously injured in falls from height.

Teesside Crown Court heard how two BT engineers were working at the organisation’s Darlington Automatic Telephone Exchange on 1 April 2010.

One of the engineers was installing a cable through a hole on the first floor along a ceiling level cable tray to the main distribution frame on the ground floor. To carry out this work, he was working on a stepladder in amongst the lighting system. He felt a pain in his right arm and fell from the step ladder. He was taken to hospital with head and back injuries.

The accident was not properly investigated and later that day the work was allowed to continue. The second engineer continued with the work himself, from a different ladder. However he too fell to the ground and was taken to hospital with serious skull and back injuries.

A year after the accident, the first engineer returned to work for BT. However he had lost his sense of smell and taste and required physiotherapy for a number of years. The second engineer received serious multiple fractures of the skull and spine, his sense of smell and taste had been affected, he was blinded in one eye, and has long-term memory problems.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into both incidents found that the work had not been properly assessed or planned, despite workers being exposed to such serious risks as working at height close to an electrical system.

Serious failings were also found within the electrical lighting system in that area, where workers were exposed to live metal parts, some at 240 volts. The system was poorly constructed and had not been properly maintained or tested. It is most likely that both engineers received electric shocks which threw them from the ladders.

BT pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £600,000 and ordered to pay costs of £60,000.

HSE inspector Laura Lyons said: “Work at height and working close to electrical systems needs to be properly assessed and planned so that adequate controls can be put in place. This duty rests firmly with the employer. These life-changing incidents could have been avoided if BT had provided safe systems of work and ensured that the electrical systems were properly constructed, maintained and tested.”

Steve Ringshaw, project coordination manager at telecommunications specialist ANT Telecom, said: “Whilst it appears the engineers were working near electrical systems, it does highlight the risks some employees can face when working on ladders and generally at height.

“More than a million businesses and 10 million workers are estimated to carry out jobs at height every year. Despite this, falls remain a cause of serious workplace injuries and something that can’t be ignored when it comes to protecting employees.

“With work at height often unavoidable, it’s important to assess and implement a set of good practices that minimise the risk. These range from ensuring employees are wearing the correct footwear, accounting for wind speeds when on an elevated platform, to regularly inspecting ladders and scaffold towers.

“Organisations have a moral obligation to protect employees to the best of their ability.”