10.06.2008

Companies must control risks from falls

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned companies that they must control the risks from falls in the workplace. This follows the prosecution of Spray-Craft Coating Limited after an employee fell more than two meters from the top of a spray booth resulting in several fractures and bleeding to his brain.

Spray-Craft Coating Limited of Irchester, Wellingborough was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £1,100 costs by Wellingborough Magistrates Court last week after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 4 (1)(a) and Regulation 6 (3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent falls in their workplace and failing to ensure work was properly planned.

On 19 May 2007, a 57 year old man was removing a fan on the roof of a spray booth, located in a workshop when he fell 2.6 meters resulting in serious injuries, including fracturing his left wrist and shoulder. He suffered bleeding to the brain and was in an induced coma for two weeks.

HSE inspector for Northamptonshire Peter Snelgrove said:"It is totally unacceptable that so many lives of employees who work from height continue to be put at risk. Falls from height remain the most common kind of accident causing fatal injuries. Last year, 45 people died and more than 3000 suffered a serious injury after a fall from height in the workplace.

"All companies must assess the risks from work that they are undertaking at height, ensuring that the work is planned properly and appropriate measures are taken so that workers are not exposed to risk of falling.

"This case, involving a small company of three employees, illustrates why risks should always be properly assessed. This incident could have been avoided, and a man not seriously injured if Spray-Craft had put a safe working plan in place."

The Work at Height Regulations state 'Every employer shall ensure that work at height is properly planned' and 'Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury'.
Further information about preventing falls from height can be found at: www.hse.gov.uk/falls