Poole builders fined after scaffold fall

Date:

4 July 2011

A Poole construction company has been sentenced after a carpenter was seriously injured when he fell three metres off scaffolding while working on a house extension.

Michael McCarthy, 60, from Verwood, was contracted by P O Sharps Landscapes Ltd to construct the roof of the extension at a property in Radipole Road in the town.

The extension was being built above an existing garage which protruded out beyond the face of the main building causing a step in the scaffold at roof level of the garage.

On 20 September 2008, Mr McCarthy descended the ladder and stepped backwards over the open edge, falling three metres and fracturing his spine and ankles.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuting at Bournemouth Crown Court, found the platform had no guardrails, and a ladder used to access the working platform above was positioned outward, forcing anybody using the ladder to stand backward at the unguarded edge.

P O Sharps Landscapes pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,000.

After the hearing HSE inspector Frank Flannery commented:

"Falls from height can cause significant and life-changing injuries and duty holders must take steps to prevent falls wherever possible.

"Mr McCarthy's injuries are serious and permanent: he has a steel rod in his back, steel pins in his right ankle, and left foot/heel. He suffers with chronic pain and has no prospect of working again. This incident could easily have been prevented by erecting guardrails along the platform."

In 2008/2009 more than 4,000 major injuries were caused by falls from height at work. More information about working at height can be found on the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/index.htm

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 that 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, and that its planning includes the selection of appropriate work equipment.
3. Health and safety legislation is currently under the spotlight as part of the Cabinet Office's Red Tape Challenge. To have your say on which regulations should stay and which should be scrapped, visit: http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/home/index/ and the Government will consider your views.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR (South West)