Roofer injured at Stockport school

Date:

22 July 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/34Ploughcroft

A roofing firm has been sentenced after one of its employees was injured when he fell through the roof at a Stockport school.

Ploughcroft Building Services was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident at Reddish Vale Technology College on 14 June 2010.

Trafford Magistrates' Court heard the 24-year-old Chris Buck, from Brighouse in West Yorkshire, was helping to make the roof waterproof when he tripped on some cables and fell through a fragile skylight.

Mr Buck fell 2.6 metres to the concrete floor below at the secondary school on Reddish Vale Road in Stockport. He suffered injuries to his back and neck, and has been unable to return to work.

The court was told that the company had failed to provide a cover or barrier for the skylight, despite being told to do so in a report by a health and safety consultant less than six weeks earlier.

Ploughcroft Building Services, admitted of breaching Regulation 9 (2) (a) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to prevent the worker falling through the skylight.

The company, of Bullford Garage in Brighouse, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £10,937 in prosecution costs on 22 July 2011.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Sandra Tomlinson said:

"This incident could easily have resulted in one of Ploughcroft's employees being paralysed or even killed. Despite surviving, the injuries he's suffered mean he has lost the confidence to be able to return to work as a roofer.

"There were children walking under the skylight just minutes before he fell through it, so other individuals were also put at risk by Ploughcroft's actions."

Chris Buck said:

"I had a very lucky escape and I don't like to think about what might have happened. I could have quite easily have landed on me head or on children below which could have led to serious injuries.

"There is a very clear message that needs to go out to businesses that they cannot afford to ignore health and safety issues, or they will have serious consequences and impact on the reputation of businesses.

"Due to the accident I now have to consider other careers. My confidence to do this job again is not there any more and I feel I would be frightened and scared to get on a roof or even climb a ladder."

Last year, more than 4,000 employees suffered a major injury as a result of a fall from height at work and 12 were killed. More information on preventing falls in the workplace 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 9 (2) (a) 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 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."

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