Prosecution follows worker's life-changing injuries

Date:

8 February 2010

Release No:

YH/045/10

A Sheffield painting company has been fined £2,000 after a worker's seven-metre fall caused life-changing injuries.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has today (8 February) successfully prosecuted Charles Painting (UK) Ltd of Thorpe Hesley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, over the incident on the 20 June 2007.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching 9 (2) the Work at Height Regulations 2005 at Sheffield Magistrates Court and as well as the £2,000 fine, was ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.

The court heard that employee John Henderson, suffered multiple fractures to his legs and arm when he fell through a fragile roof surface which has seriously changed his life. The fall happened while Mr Henderson was preparing to clean roof lights at Beeley Fabrications, Claywheels Lane, in Sheffield. He was pulling water pipes across the roof in preparation to clean, when he fell seven metres through a roof light onto the workshop floor.

The HSE investigation found that there were no working platforms, guardrails, scaffold or sufficient means of protection provided on the roof or underneath to prevent the fall.

After the hearing HSE Inspector Alison Crank said: "There were no precautions in place at the time to prevent a fall through the fragile roof or from the roof edge and as a result Mr Henderson sustained long-term serious injury.

"Figures show that falls from height are a major cause of deaths at work in the UK, with more than 4,000 employees suffering a major injury as a result of a fall from height in 2008/09. HSE is determined to raise as much awareness as possible to the hazards and risks of working at height so that employers can take sufficient steps to minimise the serious consequences of a fall."

Visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives/ for more information about HSE's latest campaign to combat the dangers of slips, trips and falls from height.

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 9(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states:"Every employer shall ensure that no person at work passes across or near, or works on, from or near, a fragile surface where it is reasonably practicable to carry out work safely and under appropriate ergonomic conditions without his doing so."
2. Regulation 9(2) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Where it is not reasonably practicable to carry out work safely and under appropriate ergonomic conditions without passing across or near, or working on, from or near, a fragile surface, every employer shall - (a) ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that suitable and sufficient platforms, coverings, guard rails or similar means of support or protection are provided and used so that any foreseeable loading is supported by such supports or borne by such protection; (b) where a risk of a person at work falling remains despite the measures taken under the preceding provisions of this regulation, take suitable and sufficient measures to minimise the distances and consequences of his fall."
3. The Health and Safety Offences Act 2008, which came into force on 16 January 2009, raised the maximum possible fine in a magistrates' court for breach of a health and safety regulation from £5,000 to £20,000.
4. More information on health and safety can be found online www.hse.gov.uk.

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Issued on behalf of HSE by COI Yorkshire and the Humber