Warehouse workers could have been killed

Date:

5 July 2012

Three Wirral employees could have been killed if they had fallen while carrying out work to a warehouse roof in Birkenhead, a court has heard.

Workers on a sloping warehouse roof in Birkenhead without safety measures in place

The men were seen repairing the leaking roof, up to 16 metres above the ground, without harnesses or any suitable safety measures to stop them falling or to prevent them from being injured if they fell.

Their employer, Davidson Williams (Merseyside) Ltd, was prosecuted after a concerned member of the public sent photos of the unsafe work to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Wirral Magistrates' Court was told today (5 July 2012) that HSE found there were around 400 clear plastic panels on the roof, designed to let in light, which could have broken away if they had been stepped on.

Two of the men were initially seen walking along the sloping warehouse roof at Vittoria Dock on 24 November 2011 to check it for leaks, before all three went onto the roof to carry out the repairs.

The court heard the workers wore hard hats and high-visibility jackets, but that neither of those items would have saved their lives if they had fallen through one of the fragile panels or off the edge of the roof.

Davidson Williams (Merseyside) Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to take measures to prevent workers being injured in a fall.

The company, of Corporation Road in Birkenhead, was fined £3,500 and ordered to pay £1,500 towards the cost of the prosecution.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Christina Goddard said:

"There were several ways this work could have been carried out safely, including using harnesses, installing netting under the fragile panels, or erecting scaffolding. But none of these methods was chosen by the company.

"Instead, the three employees were left to repair the leaking roof without any protection to stop them being injured in fall off the edge or through one of the hundreds of clear plastic panels.

"There is always the temptation for firms to cut corners to reduce costs, but companies which do this risk putting their employees' lives in danger. It is only through good fortune that no one was seriously injured or even killed in this case."

The latest figures show that 38 people died as a result of a workplace fall in Great Britain in 2010/11, and more than 4,000 suffered a major injury. Information on preventing falls is available at www.hse.gov.uk/falls.

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 6(3) of the same regulations states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury."

Press enquiries

Regional reporters should call the appropriate Regional News Network press office.

Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by the Regional News Network