Great Yarmouth demolition worker's widow speaks about husband's death

Specialist metal cutter Stephen Picken was described as "the best in the country" by colleagues

The widow of a gas rig demolition worker who died at work said "it was a pity" new safety measures were not in place prior to her husband's death.

Stephen Picken was cutting up a rig in Great Yarmouth in 2019 when a piece of metal fell off hitting a platform, catapulting him and a colleague off.

The Norfolk coroner found the platform had been placed in an unsafe position.

The 62-year-old was working for Veolia Environmental Services which said it had since made safety changes.

Gail Picken said her husband's death had left the whole family shattered

A jury at Norfolk Coroner's Court on Tuesday found Mr Picken's death to be an accident.

Mrs Picken said she was "quite satisfied" with the improvements Veolia had introduced to improve safety on site.

However she believed that "if these measures were taken beforehand, more emphasis was on health and safety, then this might not have happened.

"Of course you can never prevent an accident; they're always going to happen, but yes, more things should have been in place at the time."

At the inquest into his death the jury was told Mr Picken, who was from Stoke-on-Trent, specialised in cutting metal with oxy-propane equipment and was "the best in the country".

He was dismantling the rig on the morning of 17 October 2019 when a metal column toppled to the ground, hitting the height platform on the way, and throwing Mr Picken and his colleague to the ground from 12-14m (40-45ft) up.

A post-mortem examination found Mr Picken's cause of death was multiple injuries due to an industrial accident.

His colleague, Mark Kumar, was injured but survived.

Stephen Picken was working on a decommissioned rig at Great Yarmouth outer harbour when he fell from height

In her summary, senior coroner Jacqueline Lake said the risk assessment and method statements did not provide details regarding the positioning of the height platform.

"The MEWP was placed in an unsafe position," Ms Lake said.

Evidence was heard with regard to the coroner's duty to prevent future deaths and Ms Lake said she was satisfied with the procedures put in place by the company since the accident.

In a statement to the BBC, Veolia Environmental Services said it took workplace "safety very seriously".

The firm had since carried out its own investigation, and with HSE advice, has "implemented further measures to prevent this from happening again".

Mr Picken, who was on a cherry picker with a colleague, was cutting up this gas rig when a chunk of metal struck their platform

Mrs Picken said she has had apologies from people at Veolia, adding "the knowledge that Stephen didn't do anything wrong is of great comfort".

She said she and her husband had been planning to retire soon, to Fuerteventura in Spain, where they had recently holidayed.

"That's all he wanted, that's all he went on about, he couldn't wait to retire. And all he wanted to do was go fishing in Fuerteventura every day," she said.

"Life will never be the same again."