Roofwork failures amounted to “serious lapse”
A worker needed to wear a body and neck brace for three months after he fell headfirst through an outhouse roof.
Gelding Homes contracted Morrison Facilities Services Ltd to replace cement sheets on a single-storey outhouse in St Mary’s Close, Gelding, in Nottinghamshire.
On 28 July 2010, Morrison Facilities Services sent two workers to repair the roof. One of the men, who wishes to remain anonymous, accessed the roof via the top section of a triple ladder, which was laid across the roof to act as a platform.
While he was on the roof, one of the sheets started to collapse, and he tried to climb across the ladder to escape. As he crawled on the ladder, he placed his hand on the hanging sheet, which was positioned to the side of the ladder, and he fell through it headfirst. He landed on the ground 2.4 metres below and suffered serious fractures to his neck and back.
HSE inspector Nic Rigby investigated the incident and found that the work had not been properly planned, was not carried out in a safe manner by trained staff, and was not properly supervised.€
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Roofwork failures amounted to “serious lapse”
A worker needed to wear a body and neck brace for three months after he fell headfirst through an outhouse roof.
Safety & Health Practitioner
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a triple ladder, which was laid across the roof to act as a platform.
Say`s it all really?
Obviously not aware of Schedule 6 requirements, still he`s not the only one is he?
Maybe the new WAH guidance will inform him, I would`nt bank on it though, would you?
They should have forseen someone getting knackered by this Client?
Like they say, ithe names the give away.
Nice to see the fine approaching 20k, shame recent other WAH convictions do not reflect this level of penalty for equal, if not worse failure.
An article within SHP dated 17/2/2010 refers to WAH Competence – states,
For employees, that also means recognising that theirs is to reason why – they have a responsibility not to work at height if they believe that the work method or equipment is unsafe.
It beggars believe that 2 yrs latter and 7 yrs after WAH 2005 came to light, that we continually see utter ignorence of adequate control for WAH.
And another HSG document is supposed to address this, how exactly?
once again the lack of a suitable and sufficient risk assessment was a comtributing factor along the use of ladders as working platforms