Roofing firm sentenced after worker's life put at risk

Date:

14 March 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/84MDRoofCoatings

A roofing firm has been sentenced after a worker was spotted balancing dangerously on a house roof in Lymm.

The employee at M & D Roof Coatings Ltd was seen power washing the sloping roof while standing at the edge, without any safety precautions in place to stop him falling to the ground below.

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following routine inspections in the town on 5 May 2010.

The employee power washing the sloping roof

Halton Magistrates' Court in Runcorn heard the employee was photographed working nearly five metres above the ground on the roof of a semi-detached house on Grasmere Road in Lymm, Cheshire.

Inspectors immediately issued a prohibition notice, ordering the work to stop, until scaffolding, edge protection or other safety equipment had been provided.

M&D Roof Coatings Ltd was found guilty of breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to make sure the work was planned and carried out safely.

The company, formally of Bridge Street in Swinton, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £7,269 on 14 March 2011.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector John Ellis said:

"It's incredible that workers were expected to power wash a roof while standing on it, without any scaffolding or edge protection to stop them falling.

"Working on a roof without safety precautions is dangerous enough, but the risk of falling was increased by the fact that moss and other detritus were being washed off the roof. One slip and the worker would have fallen to the ground, resulting in him being seriously injured or even killed.

"Falls from height are among the biggest causes of workplace deaths in the UK. Roofing firms should therefore ensure that they have safe systems of work in place to protect their employees and others."

Last year, more than 4,000 workers suffered major injuries as the result of falls from height and 12 lost their lives. Information on preventing injuries 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 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Every employer shall ensure that work at height is properly planned, appropriately supervised, and carried out in a manner which is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe."

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