Essex school fined over student injury

Date:

21 March 2012

Release No:

HSE-E-69

A secondary school in Colchester has been prosecuted after a teenage boy was injured when a stack of timber board fell on him, causing severe injury to his ankle and foot.

On 3 March 2011, the 15 year-old student disturbed a pile of timber board which was stored in the main foyer of the school's technology department. This caused the stack which weighed 300 kilogrammes, to fall forward, knocking him down and trapping his foot.

The teenager from Colchester suffered a complex fracture to his left ankle and foot which may leave him with permanent damage.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuting told Colchester Magistrates' Court today that the Gilberd School, in Brinkley Lane, Colchester, had failed to evaluate the risks associated with storing wood in the foyer of its technology department, and therefore to protect the health and safety of its students.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Toni Drury said:

"There was a genuine risk to pupils and staff and the outcome of this incident could have been very different. A simple risk assessment would have identified the potential dangers of storing wood in a public area and help the school decide on measures to prevent this incident.

"It is an employer's duty to ensure the safety of all, whether in their employment or not, and I urge any organisation to consider where and how heavy and bulky items such as timber are stored at their premises."

The Gilberd School pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £9,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,258.50.

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. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states that:" 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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