Fall from height leads to fines

Date:

27 February 2012

Release No:

HSE/EM/311

Two Nottingham companies have been fined after a worker fell more than nine metres, injuring his back.

The 38-year-old employee of M-tech Engineering Limited fell from a mobile tower scaffold being used to install a steel staircase at a building in Convent Street, Nottingham, on 15 April 2009.

He fractured two vertebrae and was off work for almost seven months.

The building was undergoing extensive refurbishment. Thomas Long & Sons Limited were the principal contractor and M-tech Engineering Limited had been contracted to install the staircase.

The system of work was developed by M-tech Engineering.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the scaffold tower had not been erected to the manufacturer's instructions or industry guidelines, the tower was supported on a platform that was not sufficiently rigid to provide a suitable base and the working platform was not fitted with adequate guardrails to prevent falls.

HSE inspector Kevin Wilson said:

"Work at height should be properly planned and a safe system of work developed with access equipment provided that is suitable for the task.

"The system of work in use at the time of the incident put operatives at risk of falls into the stairwell from the landings, the part installed staircase and from the mobile scaffold tower and supporting platform which did not provide a safe working platform.

"As a result a man suffered serious injuries. It was only chance that his injuries were not more severe as he fortuitously landed on a surface that absorbed the energy of his fall.

"Falls from height are the biggest cause of workplace deaths and it's crucial that employers make sure work is properly planned, appropriately supervised and that sufficient measures are put in place to protect staff from the risks."

M-tech Engineering Limited, of Third Avenue, Greasley, Bulwell, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees. Today, Nottingham magistrates fined the company £8,000 and ordered it to pay costs of £4,000.

Thomas Long & Sons Limited, of Mile End Road, Colwick, Nottingham pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 for failing to plan, manage and monitor construction in a way that ensured it was carried out without risks to health and safety. Magistrates fined the company £6,000 with costs of £3,000.

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 2 (1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
3. Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states: The principal contractor for a project shall plan, manage and monitor the construction phase in a way which ensures that, so far as is reasonably practicable, it is carried out without risks to health or safety, including facilitating-
   1. co-operation and co-ordination between persons concerned in the project in pursuance of regulations 5 and 6, and
   2. the application of the general principles of prevention in pursuance of regulation 7."
4. Visit www.hse.gov.uk/falls for more guidance on working at height.

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