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Workman ‘disappeared’ through roof during sheet and capping replacement
A firm has been fined after a workman was severely injured in a 7m fall through a roof whilst converting a former pig shed into a workshop on a farm in Turriff, Aberdeenshire on 10 March 2009.
Four workers, including Mr Mundie aged 23, accessed the roof by ladder to replace roofsheets and capping. Shortly after work started witnesses reported hearing a ”loud crack” and Mr Mundie was seen ‘disappearing’ through a fragile rooflight to the concrete floor 8m below.
He sustained a broken arm and wrist, needed a bone graft and two operations to insert plates and six pins. He was off work for ten months and has continuing pain, numbness and limited movement.
HSE investigators found that there had been no assessment of the risks nor was a safe system of work in place.
Work could have been done from mobile elevated work platform
Joseph Adams of Backhill Farm, Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire was fined £4,500 after pleading guilty to breaching HSW Act Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
After sentencing, HSE Inspector Alan Mackinnon said:
“Mr Mundie has been left with significant and lasting injuries that could easily have been avoided if Joseph Adams had thought about the obvious risks involved when working on the roof.
Joseph Adams did not provide any equipment to allow the men to work on the roof safely. He could have arranged for his employees to work from a mobile elevated work platform, wear safety harnesses while they were on the roof or for properly fixed crawling boards with barriers to be used. Not providing any of these safeguards is simply unacceptable.
Guidance is freely available on the HSE website to help dutyholders ensure that work at height is carried out safely. If Joseph Adams had taken simple safety measures, Mr Mundie would not have sustained these injuries.”