News, sport and entertainment from the Bournemouth Echo and Dorset Echo.

Ladder plunge builder 'died of head injuries'

From the Echo, first published Thursday 18th Jul 2002.

TRAGIC builder Kenneth Roberts died of massive head injuries after plunging from an unsecured ladder, an inquest jury heard.

The 41-year-old father-of-four fell head-first on to a concrete floor as he dealt with last-minute jobs on a Ferndown building site.

District coroner Sheriff Payne heard that Mr Roberts had been discussing work with contracts director Phillip Rook just minutes before the fall.

Mr Rook, who was responsible for health and safety at the site, denied witnessing the fall but Mr Roberts' colleague, Neil Herbert, claimed that Mr Rook must have seen it happen.

The Bournemouth inquest heard that health and safety regulations demand that ladders are "footed" by another person standing on the ground. They should also be tied.

There was also evidence, from the Health and Safety Executive that the ladder, owned by self-employed Mr Roberts, had, at some time before the accident, lost its safety feet, which might have prevented it sliding across a concrete floor.

Mr Herbert told Mr Payne he believed Mr Rook saw the fall.

"To watch somebody go up a ladder without anybody holding it is not good. There should be somebody holding it so accidents like this don't happen."

Mr Herbert added: "Mr Rook said he wasn't there but he was. Why would somebody say that?"

When asked if Mr Rook could have left the scene of the accident before it happened, he replied: "Not unless he was wearing a cape with an `S' on the front of it."

Mr Rook told the inquest: "I left Ken to carry on and I stood outside the unit. I heard a crash and then I returned to the unit."

The inquest heard that Mr Roberts, of Phelipps Road, Corfe Mullen, and Mr Herbert had been sub-contracted to carry out roofing work at the site in Nimrod Way by Poole-based Stansmore Builders for whom Mr Rook is employed.

The accident happened at 12.20pm on Friday March 8.

Mr Roberts was rushed to Poole Hospital and then transferred to the neurological unit at Southampton. He died two days later.

Mr Payne told jurors that the lack of safety feet on the bottom of the ladder was the most likely explanation for the ladder slipping across the concrete floor. They returned a verdict of accidental death.