Health and Safety Failings – Worker’s fall through unprotected roof light leads to prosecution

Worker’s fall through unprotected roof light leads to prosecution

Key Facts:

•  A worker fell 4m through an unprotected roof light, sustaining three fractured ribs.
• The HSE investigation identified a lack of sufficient safety measures, and a lack of adequate planning, managing and monitoring on the site.
• Two firms were subsequently fined a total of £21,000.

The Case:

An HSE investigation was launched into the practices of two firms after a worker was seriously injured in a fall from height in Cornwall.

In an incident on 21 August 2013, an employee fell 4m to the ground after falling through an unprotected roof light. The incident left him with three fractured ribs.

The subsequent HSE investigation found that his employers had failed to ensure sufficient measures were in place to minimise the risks of working at height, and that the project’s principal contractor had failed to adequately plan, manage and monitor the contractor’s work.

The case was heard at Truro Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 28 April 2015. The roofing firm who had employed him pleaded guilty to breaching Work at Height Regulations and were fined £7,000, costs of £1,034, and a victim surcharge of £120.

The principal contractors for the project pleaded guilty to breaching the Construction (Design and Management) Regulation 2007. They were fined £14,000 plays costs of £1,034 and a victim surcharge of £120.

What the law states:

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.”

Regulation 26(2) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states:

The principal contractor for a project shall plan, manage and monitor the construction phase in a way which ensures that, so far as is reasonably practicable, it is carried out without risks to health or safety, including facilitating—
(i) co-operation and co-ordination between persons concerned in the project in pursuance of regulations 5 and 6, and
(ii) the application of the general principles of prevention in pursuance of regulation 7.

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