Slips, trips and falls can be costly - as firm discovers

Date:

11 February 2009

Release No:

HSE/WM/510/2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning that slips and falls can be costly - after the company responsible for a driver breaking his ankle was fined a total of £5,600 and ordered to pay costs of £8,951.

This ruling against Basingstoke-based Sunlight Services Group Ltd comes just as the HSE launches the second phase of its 'Shattered Lives' campaign to highlight the potentially fatal consequences of slips, trips and falls in the workplace.

The company was prosecuted for failing to ensure there was a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the wooden decking near a diesel pump in its London Road depot in Coventry and failing to protect drivers using the pump. The company was also guilty of failing to ensure every floor in the workplace was suitable for the purpose for which it was used and was not slippery.

Sunlight Services Group was fined £2,400 by Coventry Magistrates' Court,on February 4th 2009, after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 12 (1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992. It also pleaded guilty to the charge of breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the court imposed a fine of £3,200.

The court heard how a driver at the firm's London Road depot was stranded after slipping as he prepared to fill his truck with diesel. After falling, he was alone for 20 minutes until managing to contact his wife by mobile phone and she called an ambulance. Surgeons needed to insert a plate and two pins to repair his broken ankle that was also dislocated.

The driver, an agency worker, had been working at the company for just two weeks when the incident took place on 20 November 2007.

The man had parked his vehicle next to the locked pump to fill up with fuel and slipped on the wooden decking in front of the diesel pump. He took just two steps before slipping and being injured. When the paramedics arrived, they too found the surface to be slippery and had to remove some of the decking before they could move the man to the ambulance.

It was not the first time drivers had slipped in the area, as the area was slippery and the pump had a minor drip leak when not in use, but no injuries had occurred before. The area has since been concreted at the suggestion of HSE and the Health and Safety Laboratory.

Speaking after the case, HSE inspector Pamela Folsom, said: "An incident like this can often be seen as trivial and laughed off by employers but the cost to businesses and victims mean it is no laughing matter.

"In this case, the dangers should easily have been identified with even a basic risk assessment and avoided by installing a different type of flooring. Wooden decking was the incorrect selection of material for an outdoor area that was subject to weather conditions and fuel spillage. Although the designated Health and Safety Officer of Sunlight had observed a trip hazard from pallets they did not examine the slippery nature of the decking due to inappropriate footwear. The risk assessments that had been undertaken bore little reality to the actual hazards highlighted and demonstrated the inadequate training given to those employees undertaking them. Consequently the company took no action to reduce the likelihood of a future incident occurring until intervention by the HSE during its own investigation."

Fatalities and serious injuries arising from slips, trips and fall incidents cost an estimated £700 million last year. In the West Midlands region five people were killed after falling from height in 2007/08, with a further 4,200 suffering injuries from slips, trips or falls.

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: "Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of -
   1. the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and
   2. the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking, (NB: In this instance, agency drivers were 'non-employees' who were put at risk by Sunlight's failure to have a safe system of work.) for the purpose of identifying the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions and by Part II of the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997.
2. Regulation 12(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations1992, states: "Every floor in a workplace and the surface of every traffic route in a workplace shall be of a construction such that the floor or surface of the traffic route is suitable for the purpose for which it is used."
3. Further information on slips, trips and falls can be found at: www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR West Midlands.