There are three companies from Gloucestershire due to go to court because a man died from electrocution whilst working on a marquee. The inquest jury concluded that he died “as a direct result of a succession of failures”. The businesses involved must now answer for their actions, or to be more accurate, for their 'inaction'.

The numerous local and national media reports suggest that the venue owner believed the event manager to be responsible for assessing the onsite risk because it was their event. The event manager believed the marquee supplier to be responsible because it was their marquee. The marquee supplier believed … who knows. You get the drift!

All the businesses involved were named repeatedly in the media.

What is very clear is that not one of the three businesses involved with the event had put in place the simplest of health and safety measures that would have saved this man’s life. Their staff claimed to be untrained, unaware of their responsibilities and unable to comprehend the possibility of the danger that lay before them.

Unfortunately, that was also true of the gentleman that died because even if everyone else had been ignorant of the legal requirements, had he been trained he could have simply refused to carry out the task until it was safe to do so. But alas, it seems he was neither trained nor able to communicate any concerns he may have had due to a lack of English.

The worst-case scenario?

So what next? Three children grow up without their father.

Three organisations have already received the type of publicity that could ruin them. The business Directors must argue their defence in court. The costs in terms of time, reputation and money will be immense. The fines could be significant and they will be personal for the Directors.

The worst that can happen has happened for one family. Their loved went to work in the morning and never came home.

For the businesses involved. Directors of all three businesses could be banned from holding Directorships for years? It most definitely means fines, possible publicity orders and an irrefutable stain on their business reputation. And living with the knowledge that this man’s death was avoidable.

We can only imagine how those that witnessed this awful death must feel.

And why? Because of a lack of understanding? A disregard for responsibility? Or "it won't ever happen to us" mentality? 

What do you think?

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