Company fined after scaffolding tube hits passer by

Date:

18 October 2011

Release No:

COISE/1810

A Worthing-based company has been fined after a pedestrian was hit by a scaffolding tube as she walked down an alley in Worthing.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Ashacre Limited over the incident which happened on Monday 7 February 2011.

The injured person, who wishes not to be named, was walking down the alleyway that runs between the Union Place car park and Chapel Road when she was hit by the 5ft steel scaffold tube, suffering a deep gash to the head and a bruised arm.

Worthing Magistrates' Court heard the scaffold tower was being dismantled after it had been erected to clear a blocked gutter and downpipe at the back of the Connaught Theatre in Worthing.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Denis Bodger said:

"This is a serious incident that could easily have resulted in a fatality. When erecting and dismantling scaffolding there is always a risk of someone dropping materials or tools, however carefully they are working. Precautions therefore need to be taken to ensure that if anything does fall from the scaffold it can not strike anyone."

Ashacre Limited of A2 Yoeman Gate, Yoeman Way, Worthing, West Sussex, pleaded guilty to of breaching section 10(2) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The firm was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,936.

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 10(2) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Every employer shall take suitable and sufficient steps to prevent any person being struck by any falling material or object which is liable to cause personal injury."
3. Information on risk assessments can be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies/index.htm

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR South East