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Safety and Health Practitioner (SHP) is first for independent health and safety news.
June 5, 2013

Worker fell through unsupported school roof

A worker was seriously injured when he fell through a fragile roof at a school sports hall in Lancashire.

Lee Byrne, 29, was working for K Pendlebury and Sons Ltd on a project to replace a raised roof on the sports hall at Loreto High School in Chorlton, Manchester.

Workers had removed old steel beams from under the roof so new beams could be installed. But this meant corrugated tin panels on part of the roof were left unsupported.

On 9 November 2011, Mr Byrne walked across the roof to ask his colleagues for their lunch order, when one of the panels gave way. He fell ten metres and hit a section of scaffolding, before landing on the ground.

He suffered a fractured pelvis, broken fingers and his right arm and elbow were shattered. He underwent surgery to fit an artificial elbow, but has been unable to return to work owing to his injuries.

Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard there was no barrier around the fragile area of the roof and the scaffold had only been erected under parts of the roof, rather than covering the full width.

The HSE issued a Prohibition Notice to the company, which ordered work to stop until suitable barriers and crash-decking were put in place. It also issued two Improvement Notices, as the existing scaffolding didn’t cover the whole width of the roof, and there was no edge protection to prevent people falling on to exposed scaffold tubes beneath the roof.

HSE inspector Matt Greenly said: “The injuries the employee has suffered will affect him for the rest of his life, but he could easily have been killed if he hadn’t hit the scaffolding on the way to the ground.

“No barriers were put up to prevent access to the fragile roof panels, despite the company recognising before the incident that barriers would be needed. There should also have been scaffolding under the whole of the roof to catch anyone who fell.

“This was a big project that should have been carefully planned but, sadly the company’s failings have led to an employee being badly injured.”

K Pendlebury and Sons appeared in court on 31 May and pleaded guilty to breaching reg.9 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £3539 towards costs.

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