Prestwich firm fined after putting lives at risk

Date:

20 September 2010

Release No:

HSE/NW49Viewline

A home improvement company has admitted breaking a health and safety law after a worker was seen on a house roof with nothing in place to stop him falling.

Viewline Northwest Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after inspectors saw the man working on the roof of a home in Timperley on 16 September last year while standing on a platform with no guardrail.

A worker at Viewline Northwest on the roof of a home in Timperley

Trafford Magistrates' Court heard that the company, which has its headquarters in Bury New Road in Prestwich, did not do enough to stop its workers falling from height which could have caused a serious injury or even proved fatal.

Viewline Northwest Ltd had previously been warned by HSE about putting workers at risk when working at height after a similar incident in March 2009 at a house in Middleton, Rochdale. HSE ordered the work to stop immediately until the company addressed its concerns.

HSE Inspector, Helen Mansfield, said:

"There were clear failings that left employees at risk of falling a significant height from the working platform. If the worker had slipped or stepped back a few inches too far, we could have easily been dealing with a fatality.

"Falls from height are the biggest cause of death and serious injury at work and employers must make sure that they plan and manage jobs properly to keep workers safe.

"It is simply unacceptable that this company had not heeded previous warnings from HSE, and it is lucky that this incident did not result in injury."

In 2008/9, there were 35 fatalities and more than 4,000 major injuries caused by falls from height.

Viewline Northwest pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, for failing to take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent a fall from a roof. The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,274 on 17 September.

Information on how to prevent falls from height is available at www.hse.gov.uk/falls.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling from a distance liable to cause personal injury."

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