Serious injury leads to working at height warning

The HSE is warning construction companies of the importance of implementing safe systems for working at height following prosecution of a company after an incident in which a worker was seriously injured.

Eastern Windows Manufacturing Co Ltd, of Booth Street, Handsworth, Birmingham, was (on Tuesday 10 June) fined £5,000 with £1,480 costs by Coventry Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. This is the maximum fine that Magistrates Courts can impose for a breach of health and safety regulations.

In September 2005, an employee fell approximately 2.5 metres through a fragile roof whilst working on a job to fit new doors, windows and roof to a single storey extension at Townsend Road, Coventry.

The employee fractured his skull and vertebrae, and is now deaf in one ear and has difficulty walking.

HSE Inspector Stephen Farthing said: An employee suffered very serious injuries in this incident. Despite this, the company subsequently sent a second man to work on the same roof without any additional protection from falling�.

The Court heard that sufficient measures had not been taken to support or protect anyone from falling through the roof. The Court also heard that several weeks later, another worker came back to the site to remove the old roof and fit a new one, and again climbed onto the roof without adequate
fall protection!

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