Wednesbury man died after ladder fell over, inquest told

Self-employed IT worker Omar Mohammed Said Patel, aged 36, was installing wireless equipment at poultry processors JFL based at Larches Close, Four Ashes, near Wolverhampton, when he was found lying on the floor on March 21 last year.

The inquest held yesterday in Stafford heard the married father of three, of Hodgkiss Close, Wednesbury, suffered severe bleeding of the brain and died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham, the following day.

Giving evidence JFL's managing director Ammr Yaqub, of Stafford Road, Darlaston, repeatedly declined to answer questions put to him by Staffordshire Coroner Mr Andrew Haigh about site equipment.

But Health and Safety Executive inspector Alastair Choudhury told the jury Mr Yaqub gave a statement to the service following the incident.

He said Mr Yaqub had stated that he heard a bang outside his office and that a colleague, called Tariq, came to tell him something had happened.

He followed him to the cold store where Mr Patel was found with the 4ft long step ladder lying on the ground.

Mr Choudhury told the inquest jury: "Mr Patel did not appear to have been wearing personal safety equipment, such as, a harness, hard hat or high-vis jacket.

"There is no evidence to suggest anyone else had been with him at the time of the incident.

"If you were up a ladder for longer than 30 minutes we would expect a risk assessment to be put in place and measures to reduce those risks," Mr Choudhury added.

He said the HSE's safety recommendation is that a scaffold tower or podium step should be used in those circumstances and would allow the user to have free hands without the need to hold the ladder. He said Mr Patel's widow said she was unaware he owned a ladder.

Mr Choudhury told the hearing checks of the ladder had found one of it's four feet was missing and that the remaining three were 'extremely worn' and from a sticker on the side indicated it had been made in the early 1990s.

"Someone should have checked the ladder, and it should not have been used," he added.

The jury returned a verdict that Mr Patel had fallen when an unstable ladder toppled, causing his accidental death as a result of an unintended consequences of an act of omission.

Coroner Mr Haigh told the family: "We have not got to be bottom of the ownership of the ladder, but he shouldn't have been using it – with such a terrible result for you."