'Inappropriate' working at height methods lead to big fines

The Health and Safety Executive has reported that a company and its contractor have been fined following the fall of an employee from a height of more than 10 metres.

Veolia Environmental Services Birmingham was fined £100,000 with costs of £22,000, while the contractor Hansen Transmissions of Huddersfield was fined £70,000 with costs of £22,000.

The incident took place when an employee of the contractor, was replacing a gear box in a condenser unit at Veolia Environmental Services' premises. The employee fell causing him to suffer broken ribs, a hernia and a punctured lung. His fall was broken when he landed on a pallet of copper pipes.

Paul Smith, HSE investigating inspector said of Hansen Transmissions system: "was plainly unsafe - men [were] working ten metres and more up in the air, [they] were manoeuvring bulky plant using inappropriate methods, [and they were] on and above an inadequate working platform, with markedly inadequate protection from the drop beneath".

HSE Warns Employers to Safeguard Employees Working at Height

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a warning to all employers to ensure that they take proper precautions to prevent employees from falling from height.

This word of warning is in respect to the prosecution of a Coventry based company by the HSE, after an employee feel from a roof 3.5m high, consequently, dislocating two of his fingers, fracturing his left wrist and injuring his eye socket.

Thornett Mechanical Services Ltd, was fined a total of £2,500 plus ordered to pay costs of £2,151 at Coventry Magistrates' Court on 13th May 2009. The company pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety legislation.

Following investigations into the incident, which occurred on 2nd December 2008 at a unit in Bilton Industrial Estae, Coventry, the company was charged by the HSE under Regulation 4 and Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

The employee was constructing the roof of an acoustic booth at a height of 3.5 metres where access to the roof was via a mobile tower scaffold. In order to undertake the roof work, it was necessary for the employee to work on the roof and use two planks to kneel and stand on. The drill bit broke while he was kneeling on the roof perimeter, causing him to jolt forward. As a result, he lost his balance and fell onto a concrete floor.

Speaking after the case, HSE investigating inspector Pam Folsom said: "Thornett Mechanical Services Ltd failed to carry out a risk assessment or plan a safe system of work. This could have involved fabricating the roof at floor level and lifting it into position so that the perimeter fixings could then be undertaken from the tower scaffold, or erecting edge protection around the roof's perimeter as the tower scaffold only covered the width of the booth. The injured man had not been trained to work at height and his supervisor had not been trained to conduct risk assessments. Furthermore, the supervisor had not done any work at height training himself."

Company fined £135,000 for Worker Death

A company based in Dartford have been fined £135,000 with costs of £18,313 after a man fell 10 metres to his death. Laing O’Rourke Construction South Limited was fined for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The steel worker fell through a hole that had been covered with plywood whilst on site on the Jemstock Project, Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets.

Even though risk assessments and method statements had been undertaken, the weekly and monthly checks required from these assessments were not being sufficiently carried out. The plywood used to cover the whole was of poor quality, and site managers were not aware of this, nor who was responsible for covering it.