HSE warns building firms after worker is seriously injured in fall

Date:

15 October 2009

Release No:

WM358/09

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is urging employers to ensure their workers are protected when working at height after a man fell from the first floor of a building he was working on, suffering life-threatening injuries.

The man was using a power saw at Barnfields Industrial Estate in Leek, Staffordshire, when he fell through the side of the building to the ground on 30 October last year. An investigation showed the walls of the building had been removed and there was an inadequately positioned steel girder around the sides.

G Baskerville Ltd, of Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent, pleaded guilty at Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates Court today (16 Oct) to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,000.

HSE inspector Guy Dale said: "Although there was a horizontal steel girder around the sides of the building, there were still substantial gaps and there was a significant risk that other workers could also have fallen four metres to the ground below.

"The injured party sustained serious injuries from the fall. He had to be sedated for three weeks and spent a further three weeks in hospital. At one stage his injuries were believed to be life threatening."

"It is vital that if workers have to work at height that there are adequate barriers erected to prevent them from falling."

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: 'It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.'

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