Salad company in safety prosecution

Date:

2 November 2012

Release No:

YH/201/12

An East Yorkshire firm has been sentenced for safety breaches after a worker fell more than four metres through a greenhouse roof.

The 44-year-old, from Preston, east of Hull, was cleaning and repainting greenhouse gutters at Hedon Salads Ltd in Burstwick when he lost his footing and fell through the glass roof. He broke his wrist and needed 20 staples across a head wound before being released from hospital after an overnight stay.

The incident, on 26 August 2010, was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which today (2 November) prosecuted the firm for failing to protect its workforce against the risk of falls.

Hull Magistrates' Court was told the man, who does not wish to be named, was one of a team of employees tasked with working on the gutters of 20 greenhouses at the firm's 30-acre site in Main Street, Burstwick. The greenhouses, used for cultivating tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, have an average size of 5,000 square metres.

HSE discovered the team were told to walk heel to toe along the gutters and to use a long-handled brush to steady themselves against the glazing bars. No equipment was provided and no instruction given to protect them against a fall.

The worker had cleaned some guttering and returned to the ground to collect his brush and paint. He climbed back up and had completed a short length of paintwork when his right foot went through the glass and he fell through the fragile roof.

HSE served a Prohibition Notice on the firm preventing further work on the guttering until safety measures were in place.

Hedon Salads Ltd, of Newport, Brough, which employs more than 100 people, was fined £12,500 with £3,921 in costs after admitting a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Andrew Gale said:

"This employee was extremely lucky not to have suffered more severe injuries, or even lost his life, in a fall of over four metres. It could have easily been prevented by providing the proper equipment, such as a lightweight walking frame.

"This case highlights how important it is for employers to identify the risks involved in working at height, particularly near fragile materials, and taking the necessary steps to reduce those risks and prevent falls.

"Falls are the second highest cause of fatal incidents in agriculture and falls through fragile material account for half of these deaths."

The latest figures from HSE 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 9(2)(a) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: every employer shall ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that suitable and sufficient platforms, coverings, guard rails or similar means of support or protection are provided and used so that any foreseeable loading is supported by such supports or borne by such protection;

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