Skegness firm prosecuted over fatal fall at Doncaster farm

Date:

30 September 2010

Release No:

YH/236/10

A Skegness caravan park operator has been fined £15,000 for safety failings after a worker fell to his death in a hay barn near Doncaster.

Blue Anchor Leisure Ltd, of Chapel St Leonards, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 at Doncaster Magistrates Court today (30 September) after being prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive.

Clifford Hartley, 59, from Skegness, was re-roofing a fire-damaged barn at Westfield Farm, on Nutwell Lane, Armthorpe, with a colleague when the incident occurred on 4 September 2008.

A stack of hay bales had been positioned inside the barn to provide a working platform and to try and break any falls, but when Mr Hartley fell from the roof he landed 18 inches to the side of them onto a concrete floor, sustaining fatal head injuries.

The hay bales were only stacked to roof level in parts and didn't extend far enough inside the barn to provide complete protection. So when Mr Hartley fell they were effectively useless.

The Health and Safety Executive brought charges against Blue Anchor Leisure Ltd for failing to adequately protect its employees.

In addition to the £15,000 fine, the company was also ordered to pay £4,964 in costs.

After the hearing HSE inspector Medani Close said:

"This is a tragic death that could easily have been avoided had Mr Hartley's employer taken more time to assess the potential risks to him and his co-worker, and done more to avoid them.

"The bales of hay in the barn could have provided an adequate safety system, however, the way they were situated left little room for error and they clearly weren't fit for purpose. That responsibility and subsequent failing ultimately rests with Blue Anchor Leisure Ltd.

"Too many lives are shattered as a result of falls from height at work, and I hope today's prosecution serves to remind all employers that proper precautions must be taken at all times."

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.
2. Regulation 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 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."
3. For more information about how to avoid slips, trip and falls in the workplace, visit: www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives

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