Worker suffers severe head injury in barn roof fall

Date:

19 March 2013

A worker suffered multiple head injuries and was left blind in one eye after he plunged nearly five metres through a fragile barn roof in Edale, a court has heard.

The barn in Edale where the worker fell through the roof

The 31-year-old from Wirksworth, who has asked not to be named, was helping to carry out repairs to the roof when one of the corrugated cement roof panels gave way at Lady Booth Hall Farm on Ollerbrook Lane on 9 July 2012.

The worker fell to the concrete floor of the barn when the cement panel collapsed. He was airlifted to hospital after sustaining multiple fractures to his skull, and has suffered permanent loss of sight in his right eye and hearing in his left ear.

The man in control of the work, Craig Allsop, and farm owner John Shirt, were today (19 March 2013) prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an investigation into the incident.

Buxton Magistrates' Court heard Mr Allsop had totally failed to plan the work safely. He had not used any safety equipment for the work and instead had relied on walking along the parts of the roof sheets which rested on the wooden beams, using the line of bolts as a guide.

The court was told the men should have used crawling boards on the roof to spread their weight, combined with other safety measures such as safety nets, guard rails or harnesses to prevent them being injured in a fall.

Craig Allsop, 37, of Old Hill, Ashbourne, was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £800 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

John Shirt, 62, admitted a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to do more to ensure the safety of the people he had contracted to repair his barn roof. He was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay costs of £800.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Andrew Bowker said:

"Walking along the line of roof bolts above the timber purlins was a highly dangerous way to carry out the work on the fragile roof, and the only surprise is that the two men managed to complete most of the day's work before one of them crashed through and was injured.

"The worker suffered severe head injuries as a result of the fall which will affect him for the rest of his life, but he could easily have been killed. Craig Allsop was in control of the work but had a complacent attitude towards the safety of himself and the injured worker.

"The owner of the farm, John Shirt, should also have done more to make sure the work would be carried out safely. Mr Shirt knew that his barn roof was constructed from fragile cement sheets but he failed to ensure the work was properly planned and that a safe system of work was used."

Falls from height are the biggest cause of workplace deaths in the construction industry, with falls through fragile surfaces accounting for a fifth of the fatalities. Information on improving safety 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 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Every employer shall ensure that work at height is properly planned; appropriately supervised; and carried out in a manner which is so far as is reasonably practicable safe."
3. 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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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by the Regional News Network