Death Fall Through Faulty Window

A company has been fined after one of its employees was killed when he fell through a faulty window that was left unglazed instead of being safely boarded.

Antonio Rodrigues, 55, had been working for Lima Construction Limited, the principal contractor on a project to redevelop a former department store on the High Street in New Malden, London into a mixture of commercial and residential units.

Three metre fall

On 27 July 2022, Mr Rodrigues, who was working as a labourer on the site, fell from an external scaffolding platform through the unglazed window void, landing on an internal concrete ground floor more than three metres below.  Although he was taken to hospital Mr Rodrigues died from his injuries several days later on 1 August.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that in one wall, window voids had been created to install glazed Juliet doors. However, when the doors were delivered, it was found some had damaged glazing panels so were not installed. Although the company recognised that the four unglazed window voids created a risk to workers on the scaffolding platform – falling from height through the voids – it was only in the hours after Mr Rodrigues fell that protective boarding was installed.

Prevention was possible

The HSE investigation identified it was reasonably practicable for boarding or additional inside scaffolding guard rails to have been installed over the window voids to prevent falls from height as soon as they had been created.

The company had also not ensured that legally required weekly scaffolding inspections had been carried out after 5 July 2022, so the opportunity for identification of the risks posed by the unglazed window voids by a competent scaffolding inspector was lost.

Penalty

Lima Construction Limited, of Apsley Road, New Malden, pleaded guilty to contravening Regulation 13(1) of The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. It was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £11,347 at Westminster Magistrates Court on 18 June 2026.

HSE inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers said after the hearing: “This is a case where a company that generally tried to have good standards of health and safety, failed to react effectively to an unusual situation and there were tragic consequences.

“Falls from height are one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries in the UK.  Employers and those in control of any work at height activity should ensure a sensible, pragmatic approach when considering precautions for work at height.

“As there was no CCTV and nobody witnessed the incident, we will never know exactly what caused Mr Rodrigues to fall. But if the boards added shortly afterwards had been in place, then there would have been no opening for him to fall through in the first place.”

Picture: Police bodycam footage of the openings including the door in the centre which Mr Rodrigues fell through.