Forest of Dean workman fined for friend's fall through roof

Date:

18 March 2013

A self-employed maintenance worker has been fined after a friend, who was helping him on a job, fell through the roof of a disused factory.

The injured man, in his forties, suffered a broken elbow when he fell three metres through the asbestos cement roof at a disused rubber factory at Bullo Pill, Newnham, in the Forest of Dean on 4 September 2012.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which investigated the incident, today (18 March) prosecuted property maintenance worker Ashley Jones for safety failings at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court.

HSE found that, Jones who was employed to dismantle the roof of the building, did not plan the work properly or have any safety equipment in place that might prevent or mitigate the effects of a fall.

A ladder was used to gain access but the work could have been done safely from a cherry picker lift or scaffold tower. No guard rails were provided around the roof to prevent falls.

Ashley Jones, of Parkend Road, Yorkley, near Lydney, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £1,250 and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Sue Adsett said:

"Ashley Jones is a general property maintenance worker and had neither the training nor experience working on industrial roofs.

"Falls from height are the single biggest cause of deaths and serious injury in the construction industry but proper planning and simple precautions, such as working from platforms below when possible and using edge protection, can reduce the risks.

"Working on roofs is potentially dangerous and must be approached in a professional way."

The latest HSE statistics show that 40 workers were killed and more than 3,400 were seriously injured in falls from height in 2011/12. Further information on safe working at height can be found online 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 Work at Height Regulations 2005 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."

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR (South West)