HSE Falls & Enforcement Roundup

A roundup of the latest news from the HSE about falls from height

Steeplejack firm fined after worker falls

Stoke-on-Trent steeplejack firm has been fined £8,000 after one of its workers fell from scaffolding causing him injuries that left him in plaster for four months.

Rafferty Chimneys Engineering Ltd of Nash Peake Street, was working at a site in Tunstall when Kevin Ford fell one-and-a-half metres to the ground causing a serious injury to his heel.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. It was also ordered to pay £5,000 costs.

Onion firm fined after serious ladder injury

A Spalding onion packing firm has been fined after a worker broke his shoulder falling from a ladder.

Moulton Bulb Company Ltd employee Richard Webster was covering onion boxes with plastic sheeting when he fell around three metres at the firm's Glebe Farm site at Roman Bank, Spalding, on 10 September 2009.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found Mr Webster of Whaplode, near Spalding, fell from a ladder as he was wrapping a five and a half metre stack of boxes in polythene.

Mr Webster broke his shoulder which kept him off work for a month.

Moulton Bulb Company Ltd of Long Lane, Moulton, near Spalding, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,188.

Elderly man trapped and drowned in fatal pier fall

Argyll and Bute Council was today fined £20,000 after a man died when he drove over an unprotected edge of a car park at Coal Pier in Dunoon.

Duncan MacGillivray, 75 of Dunoon, drowned on 17 September 2007, when it is believed that he accidentally put his car into forward gear rather than reverse to exit a parking bay. The vehicle mounted the edging, and, as there was no protective barrier,

the car fell approximately three metres into the sea below and Mr MacGillivray was trapped.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that while there were some barriers in place at the pier, there were none in the area where Mr MacGillivray had parked.

At an earlier date Dunoon Sheriff Court heard that neither prior to the pier being utilised as a council-operated car park nor at any time after it was brought into such use, was there assessment of risk to those using the car park. Nor had any action been taken to provide adequate edge protection to prevent incidents like this.