Islington Tribune- News: BT worker

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Islington Tribune - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 12 October 2007

BT worker died after ladder fall

A BRITISH Telecom engineer died after falling from a ladder at work, an inquest has heard.
David Askew, 63, who had worked for BT for more than 30 years, died in November last year, three weeks after the fall from a ladder at the telephone exchange in Highbury Grove, Canonbury.
Father-of-three Mr Askew died less than a month before his 30th wedding anniversary.
Investigator Nicola Maisuria, from safety watchdog the Health and Safety Executive, told a St Pancras inquest this week that Mr Askew would have been forced to stand on the top rung of a two-metre ladder.
She said he should have used something “more suitable,” such as scaffolding. The dead man’s son Graham criticised BT for not carrying out a risk assessment first, saying that if inspectors had discovered broken tiles on the floor earlier his father could still be alive.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
Mr Askew’s widow Denise said afterwards: “I hope they [BT] learn from it. I hope no one else suffers like we have.”
A BT spokesman said: “We are liaising with the family’s solicitors in relation to a civil claim.”

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