Risk, Health and Safety Information

Engineering firm prosecuted after workers fall from height

A vehicle engineering, design and testing firm has been fined after two employees were injured when they fell from a platform.

One of the workers, who does not wish to be named, broke his collar bone and needed to take six weeks off work after the incident at Mira Ltd's Watling Street site near Nuneaton on 5 July last year. His colleague, who also wishes to remain anonymous, bruised his eye and cut the back of his head.

Nuneaton Magistrates' Court heard today (9 July) that the two injured employees were among six workers helping to reinstall a large motorised fan in a ceiling. As they tried to push a heavy motor back into the fan a section of the mesh mezzanine platform they were stood on became dislodged and they both fell 2.2 metres to the ground below.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the incident and found the company had failed to properly plan the work at height. Even after the fall, Mira Ltd neglected to implement satisfactory safety measures and risks remained until the work was completed.

HSE identified there were further risks to employees as the task involved working around a void through which employees could fall.

Mira Ltd, of Watling Street, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for its failings. The company was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £9,305.

After the hearing HSE inspector Alison Cook said:

"The two employees were lucky not to have been more badly injured in the fall, especially after landing the way they did with their head and upper body taking the brunt of the impact.

"Mira Ltd should have planned the work properly, and had they done so the incident could have been avoided. Instead they put six workers at unnecessary risk and fell far short of the legal standard required when planning and organising such complex maintenance work at height