Construction firm fined after man's fall

Date:

16 March 2011

Release No:

WM377/11

A construction firm has been sentenced after a man was seriously injured when he fell more than five metres through a fragile roof at a Worcester building site.

The 27-year-old man, who was employed by Lancashire-based Tower Hire (Services) Ltd, was fixing scaffolding to a section of roof at a commercial premises at Trow Way in the city on 16 October 2009.

As the man, who has asked not to be identified, stood on a skylight it gave way and he plunged almost five and half metres to the floor below, breaking his pelvis, elbow and wrist. As a result of his injuries the man has not been able to return to work.

During the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Worcester Magistrates' Court heard the man had not been told by his employers that the roof was fragile.

The court was also told that Tower Hire (Services) Ltd had failed to give the worker any information or training on how to recognise fragile roofs or on the risks involved with working on them.

Tower Hire (Services) Ltd, of Southport Road, Chorley, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £6,644 costs.

HSE inspector Paul Humphries said:

"Tower Hire Services left the labourers to plan how to do most of the job themselves and as a result, one of the company's employees was seriously injured in an entirely avoidable incident that could have been fatal.

"When falling from height remains the biggest cause of deaths within the construction industry, it is unforgiveable that this firm failed to undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment or method statement for the work.

"Any company planning to carry out work at height needs to take proper precautions to prevent incidents of this kind from happening. HSE guidance is freely available online, so there is no excuse."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce 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."
3. HSE guidance on working at height is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/campaign/wahthebasics.pdf

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR West Midlands