An apprentice joiner suffered serious personal injury, when he fell from the roof of a housing development in Leicester.

Nineteen year old Jonathan Hill, of Broughton Astley, was fitting wooden batons to the roof of a house, which was part of a housing development project on Croft Road, in Cosby, when he slipped and plummeted a distance of almost two and a half metres through the roof trusses, landing on the floor boards of the buildings first floor.

Mr. Hill had to take two months off work following the accident, in which he suffered a fractured vertebra.

The Governments Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the incident and discovered that safety equipment in the form of air bags, which had been installed on the buildings first floor, had been removed before work on the roof had been completed.

The principal contractor on the project Stokes Evans Developments Limited, of Arnesby, in Leicestershire, was fined £500 after admitting a breach of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, following a hearing at Leicester Magistrates Court.

Speaking after the court hearing a HSE inspector stated that the accident could easily have been avoided, had the company simply not removed the air bags prior to the work being completed, adding that companies could not afford to be complacent about fall protection and must ensure safety equipment remained in place till all work was finished.