Principal contractor and specialist in court together

Incomplete safety netting causes eight metre fall from structure on retail park

Taylor Pearson Construction Limited and cladding firm Roofwise (Bourne) Limited have been preosecuted after a workman fell  installing gutters on a Lincoln retail park  on 24 May 2011.

The cladding team were installing gutter sections along one side of the roof and a 53-year-old roofer was fixing the last section when he fell striking the handrail of a scissor lift before landing on the ground below. He survived the fall but suffered a fractured pelvis, shattered heel, broken thumb and spent several weeks in hospital.

HSE investigators found that roof edge protection and safety netting (installed on the majority of the roof) was missing from an ‘indented corner’ leaving the area unprotected. It was in this area that the fall occurred.

Several opportunities to identify and remedy this deficiency missed

Taylor Pearson Construction Limited, of Church Road, Martin Dales, Woodhall Spa, pleaded guilty to breaching the  principal contractor duty under Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 in relation to the fall. The firm was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,710.

Roofwise (Bourne) Limited of North Street, Bourne, pleaded guilty to breaching the contractor duty under Regulation 4(1)(c) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and was fined £3,000 with £1,710 in costs.

After the hearing (22 August) at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court, HSE inspector Tony Mitchell said:

“This incident was wholly preventable. Both defendants clearly identified the risk of a fall and the precautions that were needed, but had not fully followed this through on site

Several opportunities to identify and remedy this deficiency had been missed.

The injured worker is lucky to be alive. There is no room for complacency when it comes to work at height.”