A 23-year-old Warwick man was in hospital last night in stable condition after he dropped a piece of marble on his leg and broke his thigh bone on Thursday.

Government Health and Safety Inspector Harry Powell, who is investigating the industrial accident, which occurred at 10.40 a.m. at United Trading in Southampton, could have been avoided.

"What happened was unfortunate," he said. "It was a case when the injured man was handling a small piece of material and was lifting it out of a rack".

Mr. Powell said the man, who was lifting the marble off with a co-worker, broke his femur, or thigh bone, when the piece of marble, estimated to weigh 80 to 140 pounds fell on him.

"With the system they had, if the man had been paying 100 percent attention it would not have happened," he said.

Mr. Powell added that the man's co-workers had a tough time lifting the heavy stone off his broken leg.

"(United Trading) have been in the marble business a long time and they have got by all these years without an accident," he added.

The racks were strong enough to hold the massive sheets of stone he said, but the ground around the racks was "not free of obstacles".

"They could clear a pathway, instead of having a piece of two by four running along the length of the rack," he said.

The racks were "a little bit makeshift, but in accordance to industrial standards. We could not find any real faults," he said.

A spokeswoman for King Edward VII Memorial Hospital said the man was last night in stable condition on a general ward.

A representative of Universal Trading could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Mr. Powell said: "If the marble is standing on its edge it is harmless, but when gravity takes over, it will break legs".