Warrington worker paralysed in roof fall

Date:

7 January 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/40BizspaceMassey

A fine of £5,000 has been issued after three workers fell through skylights at the same industrial unit in Warrington on three separate occasions - leaving one of them paralysed.

During a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Warrington Crown Court heard that a caretaker from Accrington, employed by Bizspace Investments Ltd, fell through a fragile skylight while cleaning guttering on 20 March 2007. The worker suffered multiple rib fractures and severe bruising.

The industrial unit in Warrington where the workers were injured

Another Bizspace employee was sent to take photographs of the scene, at the industrial unit on Craven Court industrial estate at Winwick Quay, but fell through a different skylight. He landed feet-first on a mezzanine floor and escaped injury.

Three weeks later, on 10 April 2007, a 62-year-old man from Bury, employed by Massey Roofing and Building Contractors, was sent to repair the skylights.

While fixing a skylight, the worker, who asked not to be named, fell more than four metres to the ground below. He sustained severe spinal injuries, leading to him being paralysed from the waist down.

Bizspace, the building's owner and the employer of the first two men, and Anthony Massey, trading as Massey Roofing and Building Contractors, were prosecuted by HSE for putting workers' lives at risk.

Bizspace Investments Ltd, of Albert Place in Finchley, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,000.

Anthony Massey, 67 of Sunnybank Road, Bury, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the same Act. As he has been declared bankrupt, Mr Massey received a conditional discharge which means that he will not be fined as long as he does not commit another offence in the next twelve months.

Martin Heywood, the investigating inspector at HSE, said:

"It is astonishing that virtually the same incident was allowed to happen on three separate occasions. A man was sent onto a roof without safety equipment, despite two caretakers falling through skylights less than a month earlier.

"As a result, the worker is likely to need to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. If the project had been properly planned, using appropriate equipment for work at height, then all three workers would have remained uninjured.

"More workplace deaths are caused by falls from height than anything else but companies continue to allow workers to balance dangerously on roofs. It is vital lessons are learnt from this tragic case."

Last year, more than 4,000 employees suffered a major injury as a result of a fall from height at work and 15 were killed. More information on preventing falls in the workplace is available at: www.hse.gov.uk/falls.

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the Heath and Safety at Work etc 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."
2. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
3. 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

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