3 Dundee Firms Fined After A Worker Falls Through A Roof Light Onto A Concrete Floor
March 1st, 2012, 11:21 am
The Dundee Sheriff Court recently penalized three firms based in Dundee after one of their employees fell while working from an open roof light to a concrete floor that was 6 and half metres below it.
The Court heard that as part of a bigger work at Dundee Cold Stores Ltd, located in Dundee at Kingsway West; Security Systems – Electroguard had delegated the work to Robert AS Crockett & Partners Ltd. Christopher Carson who was employed by Robert AS Crockett & Partners Ltd was fitting cables to the wall of the structure with a view to fix new security structure on 3rd October 2008. However, one of the cables required for fixing the security system was at the roof of the structure. Mr Carson hence used a transportable board to travel to the roof height and then walked across the rooftop to manually remove it. However, upon reaching the rooftop he realized that he required some clips. On his way back to the transportable board, he was almost standing on the roof light, when he toppled through it. He first bumped over the machinery that was in the structure underneath before crashing to the ground.
Because of the terrible fall from such a great height, Mr Carson fractured his back at a number of places as well as broke and displaced his left shoulder. His lower section of the back suffered a physical injury due to a drill bit that fell from his pocket when he crashed on the surface. Mr Carson as a result of the serious wounds had to undergo an operation for reaffixing his three shoulder ligaments and also had to take on continuous physical therapy. Mr Carson till date is suffering from enduring back and shoulder pain from which he is recovering slowly.
A subsequent HSE inquiry revealed that Dundee Cold Stores Ltd had neither questioned Security Systems – Electroguard or Robert A. S. Crockett & Partners Ltd if they had an inscribed risk assessment for the lighting work they were told to do. Also neither of the firms had definite safety processes for carrying out the work securely.
On deliberating on all the proofs, the Court finally penalized all three firms with a total compensation of £336,000 for their serious health and safety breaches.
All organisations need to be sure that they are giving the correct instructions to managers when dealing with health and safety procedures. NEBOSH certifications and other qualifications can be obtained from the courses conducted by Workplace Law.