Falls through fragile roofs

Accident example 1

A farmer died five days after falling through a fragile roof. He was cleaning and inspecting asbestos cement sheets. The roof gave way under his weight and he fell nearly 3 m onto a concrete floor, suffering injuries to his head.

Accident example 2

A farm worker died after falling 4 m through the roof of a farm building. He was using a single scaffold board to walk on the roof and had been standing on this while he cut away some damaged fibre cement roof sheets. As he stood up on the board after cutting the sheets he lost his balance and fell backwards through the roof to the concrete floor below.

Accident example 3

A warehouse supervisor suffered severe head injuries and was unable to return to work after falling nearly 6 m onto a concrete floor. She was inspecting the roof to see which bits needed to be repaired when one of the plastic panels fractured. Her employer was fined £13 000 for failing to protect the health and safety of their workers, particularly for failing to prevent employees gaining access to the roof.

Accident example 4

An employee of a wood panel manufacturer suffered severe back injuries when he fell 11.5 m through a hole in the factory roof. He was on the factory roof to collect wood debris and deposit it down a chute. To gain access to the chute he had to pass along a cordoned off area where two holes had been made in the roof in preparation for the installation of a new extractor unit. One of these holes had been left open, the other covered by an insulating board. During one trip through the cordoned off area, he stood on the hole covered by insulating board; it broke under his weight and he fell. His employer was fined £12 000 for breaches of health and safety legislation.

Precautions

• Assume that roofs are fragile unless you can confirm otherwise - there may be non-visible damage caused by weathering, deterioration, etc.
• Always avoid working on a roof if it is possible to carry out the work in another way, eg approaching the roof from below.
• Never go onto any part of a fragile roof without using platforms to support your weight.
• Fit appropriate warning signs to buildings which have fragile roofs, particularly at roof access points.
• Never walk along the line of the purling bolts - it is like walking a tightrope.
• Ensure that platforms are wide enough and long enough to give adequate support across roof members and ensure that enough platforms are provided on the roof.
• Protect against falling through the fragile roof adjacent to the platform by providing:
  • a properly installed safety net, scaffolding or similar close to the underside of the roof; or
  • suitable guard rails and toe boards at the edges of the platform; or
  • further suitable coverings over all fragile materials within 2m of the working platform.