Fines after roofer suffers severe injuries

Date:

14 December 2011

Release No:

HSE-e-48-11

Three contractors from Essex have been fined a total of £53,000 after a roofer fell five metres, sustaining life threatening injuries that confined him to a wheelchair.

Jeremy Bishop, 46 from Romford was re-roofing a domestic property in Loughton when he fell from the scaffolding to the ground below.

He suffered severe injuries to his head, chest and back and was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital where he spent three weeks in intensive care before being transferred to a specialist spinal injuries unit for 8 months of intensive rehabilitation treatment.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted those involved over the incident which occurred on 5 January 2010.

Vincent Page, 46, and his firm V.Page Building Services Ltd of Epping were contracted to build an extension. The roofing was sub-contracted to Quality Roofs Ltd of Chingford and its director Alan Tyler, 64, and the scaffolding to Philip Blakeman, 58, (trading as Access Specialists) of Romford.

Harlow Magistrates' Court heard how following the incident HSE found that intermediate guard rails (mid rails) had not been installed along the entire rear elevation of the scaffolding and there was nothing in place to prevent falls from the gable ends of the house. Those involved had failed to ensure the necessary guardrails had been installed.

The HSE served V.Page Building Services Ltd with a Prohibition Notice to prevent further work on the roof until guard rails were installed.

HSE Inspector Adam Hills said after the case:

"The injuries Mr Bishop sustained were life changing. He was in hospital for eight months, is still undergoing rehabilitation and will be in a wheelchair for the rest of this life. This could have been prevented if the companies and individuals had taken a few simple industry standard safety precautions by installing the guard rails as edge protection.

"Falls from height are one of the biggest killers in the workplace. Employers need to be aware of the risks it poses and ensure that their staff are properly protected."

Director of V.Page Building Services Ltd, Vincent Page, 46, of Stanford Rivers Road, Ongar admitted breaching Regulations 8(a) and 12(4) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. Mr Page was fined £20,000 with £8,000 costs.

Quality Roofs Ltd and its director Alan Tyler, 64, of Brook Gardens, Chingford pleaded guilty to the same offences. The company was fined £10,000 with £4,000 costs. Mr Tyler was fined £20,000 with costs of £4,000.

Philip Blakeman, 58, trading as Access Specialists, of Queensway, Ongar, admitted breaching Regulation 8(a) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £3,000 with costs of £2,000.

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 8(a) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Every employer shall ensure that, in the case of a guard-rail, toe-board, barrier or similar collective means of protection, Schedule 2 is complied with; in that
   1. be of sufficient dimensions, of sufficient strength and rigidity for the purposes for which they are being used, and otherwise suitable;
   2. be so placed, secured and used as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that they do not become accidentally displaced; and
   3. be so placed as to prevent, so far as is practicable, the fall of any person, or of any material or object, from any place of work.
3. Regulation 12(4) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states "Without prejudice to paragraph (2), every employer shall ensure that a working platform a)used for construction work; and b)from which a person could fall 2 metres or more, is not used in any position unless it has been inspected in that position or, in the case of a mobile working platform, inspected on the site, within the previous 7 days.

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