Prosecutions
Man fractures skull in fall from roof
24/10/2009
The HSE recently prosecuted 1st a roofing company, based in West Yorkshire, for three safety breaches over an incident in January this year. A worker fell over 4 metres and sustained serious head injuries.
The company pleaded guilty to all three charges under the Work at Height Regulations 2005 at Skipton Magistrates Court, and was fined £23,500 in total and ordered to pay £3,452 costs.
The fines are substantially higher than in previous cases of this nature because two of the three breaches continued on the day after the roofer suffered his fall. This meant the new Health and Safety Offences Act 2008 came into force; this gives Magistrates more power to hit guilty parties in the pocket. The roofing company is believed to be the first company to be successfully fined using the powers in the new legislation.
The court heard that an employee of the roofing company suffered a fractured skull after falling through a skylight whilst replacing a roof. After falling two metres, he struck a tower scaffold, which had formed part of the working platform. He fell a further two metres on to a concrete floor, where he hit his head on a metal vehicle lift, fracturing his skull.
The HSE investigation found that there were no coverings in place on any of the roof’s skylights to prevent a fall. Furthermore the company had told its employees to erect the tower scaffold when they were not trained to do so. No handrail was installed and the platform was too low to break the employees fall. The company had instructed the employees to assemble the scaffolding outside the building knowing that they were not trained.
After the hearing a HSE Inspector commented:
"These are very serious health and safety breaches, as we found that all roof workers at the premises were exposed to risk of injury. As well as poorly assembled scaffolding and tower scaffolds, we found that none of the skylights had been covered to prevent employees from falling through. The measures in place at the time simply did not amount to a safe system of work and as a result Adam Lambert has sustained long-term injuries, which he has yet to recover from fully."
"The hazards and risks of working on roofs are well documented. HSE has produced a lot of guidance over many years because falls from height are a major cause of deaths at work in the United Kingdom"
The fines are substantially higher than in previous cases of this nature because two of the three breaches continued on the day after the roofer suffered his fall. This meant the new Health and Safety Offences Act 2008 came into force; this gives Magistrates more power to hit guilty parties in the pocket. The roofing company is believed to be the first company to be successfully fined using the powers in the new legislation.
The court heard that an employee of the roofing company suffered a fractured skull after falling through a skylight whilst replacing a roof. After falling two metres, he struck a tower scaffold, which had formed part of the working platform. He fell a further two metres on to a concrete floor, where he hit his head on a metal vehicle lift, fracturing his skull.
The HSE investigation found that there were no coverings in place on any of the roof’s skylights to prevent a fall. Furthermore the company had told its employees to erect the tower scaffold when they were not trained to do so. No handrail was installed and the platform was too low to break the employees fall. The company had instructed the employees to assemble the scaffolding outside the building knowing that they were not trained.
After the hearing a HSE Inspector commented:
"These are very serious health and safety breaches, as we found that all roof workers at the premises were exposed to risk of injury. As well as poorly assembled scaffolding and tower scaffolds, we found that none of the skylights had been covered to prevent employees from falling through. The measures in place at the time simply did not amount to a safe system of work and as a result Adam Lambert has sustained long-term injuries, which he has yet to recover from fully."
"The hazards and risks of working on roofs are well documented. HSE has produced a lot of guidance over many years because falls from height are a major cause of deaths at work in the United Kingdom"