Construction company fined GBP 18,000 after fall from height

Bouygues (UK) Limited, based in London was fined £18,000 with costs of £ 2,796 after pleading guilty to Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, today at the City of London Magistrates Court. The organisation was also ordered to pay the worker £5,000 compensation.

The incident happened when a carpenter on site attempted to tighten the shutters to allow the concrete to be cast for the next floor in the construction of a school. To manoeuvre and fix the shutters and brackets, workers had to lean out beyond the area protected by the guardrails, which consisted of two separate rails, a handrail and a midrail. The carpenter reached beyond the edge protection to the bracket. It was while reaching that he fell more than five metres to a platform below.

As a result of the fall, he suffered fractured ribs and collar-bone, air and blood in the chest cavity and a dislocated thumb. He remained in hospital for six days and was unable to work for over six months.

During the installation of the concrete slabs, before the installation of the shutters, harnesses were worn by workers who would then hook their lanyard onto steelwork or a horizontal running line. No risk assessment or method statement had been provided in relation to the subsequent securing and release of the shuttering.

The HSE investigation found there were no appropriate points identified in the area where the carpenter was working that could have been used as an anchor point with the type of lanyard provided. None of the workers in the 'slab team' appeared to have been trained in how to rescue a person suspended in a harness should they have fallen whilst clipped on.

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