Renols Lleshi was helping to dismantle scaffolding on the 12th floor roof garden of a block of flats under construction when he fell to his death (Picture: My London/BPM Media)
A teenage construction worker in London plunged six storeys to his death in what was described as a wholly preventable accident at a building site.
Renols Lleshi, 19, was removing scaffolding from a rooftop garden of a 12-storey block of flats in Acton, west London in the summer of 2023.
He stepped onto what he thought was a covered vent, but the surface collapsed beneath him, and he fell six floors to his death.
An investigation revealed that the shaft had been improperly covered with just plasterboard and roofing foam, as the rooftop was never inspected during health and safety visits.
Lleshi’s father said: ‘We are grateful to the Health & Safety Executive for their efforts to investigate the accident and prosecute one of those responsible for Renols’s death.
‘However, nothing anybody can do can bring our loved one back or lessen our grief in any way.’
Jerram Falkus Construction Limited, the 140-year-old London-based firm was fined £42,200, £5,000 in costs and a £2,000 surcharge at City of London Magistrates on Wednesday. It stopped trading last month.
The Health and Safety Executive inspector Natalie Prince said: ‘Falls from height are one of the biggest causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries. This was a wholly avoidable incident that led to the death of a young man.’
From 2023 to 2024, 51 construction workers died and over half of these fatalities were from falls from height.
The HSE reports that an average of 21 deaths per year in the construction sector are due to falls from height.
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