Steeplejack death leads to £85,000 fine

Posted on January 31^st 2011

All liability insurance customers will doubtless be saddened to hear of any injury at work, let alone death. Now two companies have been fined a total of £85,000 after a steeplejack fell 50 metres to his death from an Edwardian chimney in Bolton, and a colleague was left clinging on for his life.

John Alty and another worker were at the top of the disused chimney at Swan Lane Mills in Great Lever on 4 June 2007 when the scaffolding they were on collapsed.

The 40-year-old father-of-one from Blackburn was pronounced dead at the scene but his colleague survived by clinging to a ladder on the outside of the chimney. Bailey International Steeplejack Company Ltd and Ken Brogden Ltd were both prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following Mr Alty's death.

Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Mr Alty's employer, Bailey International, had been hired to carry out repairs to the brickwork on the chimney, and its two employees had been taking down the scaffolding when it gave way.

The HSE investigation concluded that the company had not used strong enough anchor fixings to attach the scaffolding to the chimney, despite knowing that the brickwork at the top was in a poor condition

The purpose of liability insurance is to provide funds for incidents such as these but all involved would far rather see no one being hurt in the workplace at all.

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