Owner of Roofing Company Faces Manslaughter Charges
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by: Stan Hudecki
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If your company isn't paying proper attention to worker safety and training, it is only a matter of time before it costs your business money. But did you know the cost could be a lot more? Consider this case, coming out of the United Kingdom.
Colin Cooper, sole owner and director of IC Roofing Ltd., is about to go on trial for manslaughter for the death of a worker who plunged more than six meters to his death through a skylight in East Sussex. Darren Hoofe was carrying out roofing repairs on behalf of IC Roofing on November 29, 2005, at the Bellbrook Industrial Estate in Uckfield, when he fell onto the factory floor below. He died in hospital the day after the fall from head injuries. An investigation was launched by Sussex Police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and Mr. Cooper was ultimately charged with manslaughter and offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The prosecution is trying to make the case that Cooper "hadn't correctly assessed the risks" to his employees on the job, and had not taken steps to mitigate the risk.
"He hadn't correctly assessed the risk to them of injury, let alone the risk to them of death - in particular the risk of falls from height - and he had not devised a safe system of work for what was obviously an inherently high-risk situation," they said in court papers.
The deceased, Mr. Hoofe, a trained electrical engineer who lived with his parents in Newhaven, was "inexperienced" and had received "limited training" during the six months he had been employed by IC Roofing Ltd. According to prosecutors, in addition to not wearing a safety harness, Hoofe was wearing his own running shoes, rather than proper safety boots at the time of the fall.
If there is any doubt that the safety of workers should be a company's highest priority, this case should put that to rest. Even if you can survive such a situation financially, are you willing to risk more than that, by not doing all you can to make sure your employees are safe and secure?
About the Author
Stan Hudecki is content writer for the groundforcetraining.com; Visit the site (http://www.groundforcetraining.com) for more information about Owner of Roofing Company Faces Manslaughter Charges.
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