A company in Somerset has been fined after the death of a worker who fell through a factory roof skylight.

Taunton Crown Court heard Samuel Wright Maxwell, 46, of Wells Somerset was employed by Cooper B Line (CBL) factory in Highbridge, Somerset.

As a maintenance worker, Mr Maxwell had permission to go onto the roofs for various tasks and did so regularly without adequate and sufficient safety measures being in place.

On the 17 May 2013, he was on the roof working when colleagues below heard a crash, discovering Mr Maxwell had fallen through a skylight onto the concrete floor of the rack assembly area seven metres below. He died shortly after the fall.

The roofs at CBL were extensive and people worked on them regularly, without proper precautions to prevent them falling.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation found that CBL management failed to appreciate the risks to their maintenance workers when working on the roofs. They had carried out an inadequate generic risk assessment, which failed to identify the risks and control measures necessary when its employees were working at height.

See http://press.hse.gov.uk/2016/somerset-manufacturer-prosecuted-for-workers-death/ for more details