HSE V Savill Fabrications Limited: Plan safe and stop falls from height

HSE Press Release: E169:04 - 3 December 2004

Savill Fabrications Limited was fined £4,000 at City of London Magistrates on 2 December 2004 following an HSE prosecution for a breach of health and safety law. The prosecution followed an HSE investigation into an incident on 25 May 2001 when Savill's employee Mr Robert Totham suffered serious injuries following a fall from height at a construction site at Kew Riverside, Surrey.

HSE Inspector Alec Ferguson, who led the investigation said:

"The investigation of this incident revealed that a fairly routine construction activity - the placing of steel beams for the support of concrete floors - was being undertaken without either suitable supervision, or the workers being made aware of how to carry out such work safely. Falls from height are the biggest cause of death and injury in the construction industry. The risks are obvious and well known and inspectors from HSE's Construction Division expect companies to take adequate measures to either eliminate or control those risks."

Savill Fabrications Limited, of 2 Milton Avenue, Croydon, Surrey CR0 2BP, pleaded guilty to a single charge of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs to HSE of £10,000 at City of London Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 2 December 2004.

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work at Act etc 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'.

2. The maximum penalty in the Magistrates' Court for a single offence under Section 2(1) is a fine up to £20,000.

3. Mr Robert Totham suffered serious injuries when he fell a distance of approximately 2.5 metres onto a concrete floor. He had been measuring the distance between steel beams, installed on the top of block walls, to support pre-cast concrete floor beams. The incident took place on 25 May 2001 at St James Homes construction site, Kew Riverside, Townmead Road, Kew, Surrey.

4. In the period 1998 - 2003, 429 people were been killed on construction sites in the UK. 210 of those were killed as a result of a fall from height - nearly one person every week on average. Information on preventing falls from height can be found on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/index.htm Information on the work of HSE's Construction Division can be found on the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/index.htm

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