Worker suffers multiple injuries following roof light plunge

Date:

3 March 2011

Release No:

YH/32/11

A York farmer has been prosecuted for safety failings after a builder's labourer suffered multiple injuries when he plunged through a fragile roof light during poorly planned work on a farm building.

The worker, who does not wish to be identified, fractured his skull, left collarbone and right wrist, ruptured his spleen and broke six ribs as a result of the fall at Moorhouse Farm in Hovingham on 28 October 2009.

York Magistrates Court heard today (3 March) that the labourer was helping farm owner Bruce Quarton via a third party to convert a farm building into a cattle shed.

The shed roof through which the worker fell

This required accessing the roof of the building to remove alternate ridge tiles to improve ventilation. However, there was no edge protection in place to prevent a fall, nor were crawling boards used to spread his weight on the fragile cement sheeting and plastic roof lights beneath him. Had such measures been taken he couldn't have stepped onto a roof light and fallen approximately three metres onto a concrete floor.

The Health and Safety Executive, which investigated the incident, also found the labourer was lifted to the roof in the bucket of Mr Quarton's tractor, a dangerous practice that poses a serious fall from height risk.

Although the worker was not a direct employee of Mr Quarton, it was his responsibility to provide a duty of care at the farm. As such he pleaded guilty to a section 3(1) breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for failing to take all reasonable steps to prevent the incident.

York magistrates fined Mr Quarton £6,000 and ordered him to pay £1,530 in costs.

After the hearing, HSE principal inspector David Green said:

"This work was poorly planned and executed from start to finish, with the end result being a horrific fall that could easily have killed the labourer. Thankfully he has since made a full recovery, but that doesn't detract from the seriousness of the incident or the disregard for safety at the time.

"In agriculture roughly half of deaths and serious injuries are as a result of falls involving work on fragile roofs. HSE offers ample free guidance on working at height online and through local Safety and Health Awareness Days, as it does on the safe use of farm machinery.

"Using a tractor and bucket as an impromptu lift is totally unacceptable. I hope today's prosecution serves as a further reminder that farm machinery should only be used for its intended purpose, and that work at height needs to be properly planned."

The Health and Safety Executive is currently running an intensive inspection campaign to clampdown on dangerous practices during refurbishment, repair and maintenance projects. Last year 140 workers were seriously injured in such activities across North Yorkshire alone.

Further information about the safe use of agricultural machinery can be found on the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture

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.
2. Section 3(1) 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.

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