Housebuilder fined after child seriously injured

Date:

29 November 2011

Release No:

SCO/107/11

A housebuilder has been fined £20,000 after a young boy was seriously injured when some timber roof trusses fell onto him.

The eight year old boy was playing with friends on 28 April 2009 when they got into an unsecured storage area on a construction site at Meadowbrook, Linwood, near Paisley. The development was nearing completion and the housebuilder, BDW Trading Ltd, had sold some of the finished houses and there were people living in them while work continued on the remaining homes. The young boy and his family had moved into one of these new houses.

As the children were playing in the storage area, some timber roof trusses fell onto the boy, trapping him underneath.

He was rescued by two neighbours who managed to lever the roof trusses up off him, allowing him to escape. One of the neighbours drove the boy home, and his father immediately took him to the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Paisley. However, his injuries were so serious that he was transferred to Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow.

The boy sustained a serous injury to his liver and had abdominal bleeding, and was kept in hospital for eight days. In the months following the incident, he developed a number of anxiety-related symptoms such as nightmares and poor concentration.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the construction site was only partially fenced, and as a result there was a large gap at the side and rear which meant that the site could be easily accessed by members of the public, including children.

The investigation also revealed that the roof trusses had, at some point, been stacked upright which made them unstable and more likely to fall over.

Paisley Sheriff's Court heard that when an HSE Inspector visited the site, BDW Trading Ltd were not aware that there had been an incident and that a young child had been injured. The Inspector served an Improvement Notice to the company requiring them to improve site fencing to prevent any further unauthorised access.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Gerry McCulloch said:

"BDW Trading Ltd knew that families were living right next to of the construction site, and as such the safety of children should have been a primary consideration.

"If the company had taken the straightforward precaution of fencing off the construction site, the children would not have been able to get into the area and this young lad would not have received potentially life-threatening injuries."

At Paisley Sheriff Court today (Tuesday 29 November 2011) BDW Trading Ltd, of Barratt House, Cartwright Way, Forest Business Park, Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire was fined £20,000 after it pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

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. In Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has sole responsibility for the raising of criminal proceedings for breaches of health and safety legislation.
3. Section 3 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."
4. In the period 2009/10 31 children under the age of 15 were injured on construction sites.

Press enquiries

Regional reporters should call the appropriate Regional News Network press office.

Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News & PR Scotland