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Plasterer crushed as timber roof trusses fall during unloading of lorry
Kent Road Construction Limited and Fortmere Construction (Shiv Sharma T/A) have been fined and ordered to pay prosecution costs of some £10k and £5k respectively after a worker was severely injured by falling timber.
A plasterer from was struck by timber roof trusses being unloaded by a mobile crane from a lorry trailer at a construction site at Foster Avenue, Bilston in 2009. Wolverhampton Magistrates Court heard that the workman was dismounting the trailer when several packs of the roof trusses fell onto him causing multiple fractures.
Kent Road Construction Limited admitted breaching Regulation 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulation 1998.
Fortmere Construction, admitted breaching CDM 2007 Regulation 14(1). This duty concerns the requirement on construction clients to appoint a CDM Co-ordinator.
Client failed to appoint a CDM-Coordinator
HSE inspector Martin Overstall said:
“Mr Anson received very serious injuries as a result of this incident and had the falling timber hit his head, he would almost certainly have died.
This case should remind companies managing construction sites and directing cranes to ensure all operators are properly trained and competent to do so. The law also requires companies that hire contractors to make reasonable checks that they are competent to carry out work on a construction site.
In this case, the contractor failed to plan, supervise and carry out a safe lifting operation. The client company had not appointed a co-ordinator, one of whose roles would have been to advise the client on the competence of the contractor.”
Kent Road Construction Ltd was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £4,496 costs while Mr Shiv Sharma, trading as Fortmere Construction, was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £899 costs.