Two workers fell more than one-and-a-half metres from a roof during a construction project at a school in Lancashire.
Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard that Cruden Construction Ltd was the principal contractor for a refurbishment and extension project at Barlow Moor High School in Disbury.
Two of the firm’s employees were investigating a leak on the flat roof of a new corridor area, when the incident took place on 6 September 2011. One of the men leant on a wooden handrail, which was running along the edge of the roof, and it collapsed. The other worker tried to grab hold of him, but they both ended up falling to a scaffold platform, which had protruding metal poles.
The 59-year-old worker who had leant on the handrail, twisted his right knee and suffered bruising to his ribs and left arm. His colleague, 42, suffered a fractured rib and bruising to his arm and chest.
The HSE’s investigation identified that the company installed the handrail after it removed some scaffolding. But the rail was not strong enough to act as edge protection and there was no mid-rail in place.
HSE inspector Laura Moran told SHP that the men were lucky not to have been impaled on the metal poles, which were sticking up through the platform on which they landed. She said: “Both men were lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries after they fell from the roof at Barlow Moor High School.
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There’s lots whinging about ‘lack of free H&S of info for SME’s’ going on.
I’m no super surfer, I just put ‘edge protection’ into a search engine & I got; – ‘ACR[CP]006:2009 Practical methods for providing edge protection for working on roofs’.
On page 1, it says; ‘Whichever system you propose to use you must be able to demonstrate that the system you specify is ‘fit for purpose’’.
Time taken -30 secs, cost – zero, do what it says & avoid potentia fatality = Saving of £9030 – Simples!
Point of note: Any edge protection is to be designed for Dynamic Loading not a static load.
Refer to BS EN 13374 (Also known as the Purple Book).
Any scaffold barrier is to comply with BS 12811.
None of this is rocket science, and has been around for years.
3 types of callsification exist for edge protection A B & C
A > 10 degree pitch, B > 30 degree pitch and C for 45-60 degree pitch in excess of a 5m slope.
How do these companies get on a tender list? CDM – my arse.