During a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution, Warrington Crown Court heard that a caretaker from Accrington, employed by Bizspace Investments Ltd, fell through a fragile skylight while cleaning guttering on 20 March 2007. The worker suffered multiple rib fractures and severe bruising.
A second Bizspace employee was sent to take photographs of the scene, only to fall through a different skylight. He landed feet-first on a mezzanine floor and escaped injury.
Then, three weeks later, on 10 April 2007, a 62-year-old man from Bury was sent by Massey Roofing & Building Contractors to repair the skylights at the industrial unit at Craven Court industrial estate at Winwick Quay, Warrington. He too fell from the roof, hit the ground, and was left paralysed from the waist down.
Bizspace, the building’s owner and the employer of the first two men, and Anthony Massey, trading as Massey Roofing & Building Contractors, were prosecuted by HSE for putting workers’ lives at risk.
Bizspace Investments Ltd, of Albert Place in Finchley, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,000.
Anthony Massey, 67 of Sunnybank Road, Bury, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the same Act. As he has been declared bankrupt, he received a conditional discharge which means that he will not be fined as long as he does not commit another offence in the next 12 months.
Martin Heywood, the investigating inspector at HSE, said: “It is astonishing that virtually the same incident was allowed to happen on three separate occasions. A man was sent onto a roof without safety equipment, despite two caretakers falling through skylights less than a month earlier.
“As a result, the worker is likely to need to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. If the project had been properly planned, using appropriate equipment for work at height, then all three workers would have remained uninjured.
“More workplace deaths are caused by falls from height than anything else but companies continue to allow workers to balance dangerously on roofs. It is vital lessons are learnt from this tragic case.”
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
