A senior safety engineer plunged 40ft to his death after falling through a skylight while inspecting a roof’s safety system.

An inquest heard how Paul Voller, 31, sustained severe head injuries, including a fractured skull, during the horrific incident at the B&Q store on Bradford’s Euroway Trading Estate, off the M606.

Mr Voller, an employee of Nottingham-based contractor First Testing Limited, was inspecting the roof’s Mansafe cable system when the incident happened.

Experts have told the inquest that the safety harness Mr Voller was wearing was not clipped to anything at the other end when the fall occurred.

One of his colleagues and B&Q staff gave vivid descriptions of the incident during the first day of a two-day inquest yesterday.

Aidan Wright, a trading manager at the Bradford B&Q, said: “I got a call over my radio saying someone had fallen through the roof. I picked up the First Aid kit and ran to the scene. When I got there, I saw Paul on the floor.

“I was shocked. There was blood on the floor around his head. But when I got close to Paul I realised it was much more serious. I checked airwaves and his pulse and there wasn’t any.”

Mr Wright and his colleague David Jones, another trading manager at the store, started CPR but were unable to revive him.

Mr Voller, of Mansfield Road, Blidworth, Nottinghamshire, was on the roof with his friend and colleague Thomas Bakewell when the incident happened on Thursday, May 24, 2007.

Mr Bakewell, who had known Mr Voller since he was 11, said First Trading had the contract to inspect Mansafe systems at B&Q stores and had already inspected those at Huddersfield and Keighley on that day.

He said: “Someone shouted from the floor ‘your mate has fallen.’ I said ‘is he okay?’ and he said ‘he isn’t breathing’.

Ashley Brooks, who manages the testing department at First Trading, said Mr Voller had been trained in-house and was “experienced.” He said all employees were under strict instructions to ensure their safety harnesses were clipped to something secure while working on roofs.

Louise Robinson, who investigates falls from height on behalf of the Health & Safety laboratory, said the harness Mr Voller was wearing could not have been clipped to anything.

She said she could tell from an inspection of the lanyard that it had not deployed during the incident and added that, even if it had, it “might not” have had sufficient strength to break the fall due to abrasions on it.

Four legal representatives were present at Bradford Coroner’s Court on behalf of B&Q, the family, B&Q’s insurers and First Testing. Some of the legal discussion revolved around the scope of the method statement and risk assessment documents drawn up before the roof inspection.

The jury was due to retire to consider its verdict today.