A building company has been fined £20,000 after a worker fell 13 metres down a service shaft while dismantling falsework (a form of temporary structure) in a building that was under construction at Fletcher Development, De Montfort University, Leicester.
36-year-old Pavel Gurgu fell “the height of three double-decker buses on top of each other” in June last year, the court heard.
Mr Gurgu had left the area where he was working to go to a higher part of the site to see his brother Vincentu who was working there. He began sweeping up debris which had collected on top of the hardwood over the service shaft. However the wood gave way and he plummeted to the ground.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on 15 June 2015 found that there was an unsafe system of work and inadequate supervision of workers.
David Ashley Construction Limited, of Lydford Road, Alfreton, Derbyshire pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,776.
Magistrates chairman David Simpson commended the company for its full co-operation and early guilty plea to the charge.
Roy Poulter, for the HSE said: “Mr Gurgu is an exceptionally lucky man, a fall such as this almost always results in a fatality.
“He smashed his upper arm, suffered cuts and bruising, was attended by five surgeons and it is still unknown whether he will recuperate from his injuries.
“His clothes had to be cut away by paramedics and it was fortunate he avoided hitting a red metal gate in the shaft or he might have been cut in half.”
Mr Poulter said the company had received warnings about the particular work being carried out following a similar accident in Sheffield three months earlier.
James Puzey for the company told the court that the managing director, Barry Johnson who was present for the hearing with his son, Carl, the contract manager and daughter Amelia, was deeply upset about the injury.
“He was mortified about it.” he said.
Mr Puzey said the company took the safety of its workers extremely seriously including site-specific risk assessments, daily briefings and weekly toolbox talks.
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I find these In Court Updates a very useful source for our weekly H&S Alerts. Human behaviour/attitudes is usually central to these incidents and is a hard nut to crack.
I start the H&S Alerts with “The purpose of this safety alert is to raise awareness of…” and in this case it was The importance of effective site supervision.
I summarise content accordingly and conclude with Learning Outcomes For Us and for the above it was:
• Site supervision is a key role in maintaining a safe site and preventing accidents.
• All warnings from whatever source must be taken seriously and acted upon.
• Monitor all site activities closely to ensure safe systems are in place and are being complied with.
• Site-specific risk assessments, inductions, briefings / toolbox talks are vitally important in raising and maintaining H&S awareness and therefore must be delivered and communicated effectively.