A Yorkshire management and maintenance company has been fined for safety breaches after a worker fell through a flat roof.
Sheffield Magistrates Court heard that St Leger Homes of Doncaster Ltd had failed to ensure work at height was properly planned, supervised and carried out.
The incident happened in September 2016 in Doncaster. Two workers were carrying out a flat roof replacement when a roof joist failed, causing one of the workers to fall through the roof.
The worker cracked three ribs, suffered contusions and was left unable to work for seven months.
St Leger Homes of Doncaster Ltd – pleaded guilty to breaching Section 4 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1086.20.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Stuart Whitesmith said: “This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply carrying out correct control measures and safe working practices.
“Those in control of work at height have a responsibility to ensure that it is properly planned and appropriately supervised to ensure that it is carried out in a safe manner.”
Our Advice
Alongside proper planning and supervision, a safer working system may have been beneficial to the workers, such as the Easi-Dec Roof Walk System,
The Roof Walk is a lightweight aluminium walkway, which allows access from eaves to ridge whilst spreading the load on support battens, providing the user with a safer working position.
The workers could also have used our Low Level Edge Protection system, which is designed to provide safe access and edge protection on low level roofs such as on a single garage roof or on a collection of flat roof units.