Lack of risk assessment costs company GBP 15,000
September 1, 2008
A demolition company has been fined £15,000 for failing to make a suitable risk assessment which could have prevented an accident.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched a case against Wooldridge Ecotec in response to a fall which left an electrician with a number of broken bones.
It has pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which requires companies to make a risk assessment of hazards employees are exposed to.
One of the company's directors has also been fined in relation to the absence of a suitable risk assessment.
Loraine Charles, an HSE inspector, states the employee was injured when he re-entered a building prepared for demolition and fell 5.5 metres through a hole covered by a thin sheet of metal.
She says: "The risks of falls from height on this demolition project and the measures needed to control those risks had been identified on more than one occasion; Wooldridge simply failed to implement the necessary measures."
According to the HSE, around 150,000 people were injured during 2004-05 due to companies' failure to manage workplace risk.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched a case against Wooldridge Ecotec in response to a fall which left an electrician with a number of broken bones.
It has pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which requires companies to make a risk assessment of hazards employees are exposed to.
One of the company's directors has also been fined in relation to the absence of a suitable risk assessment.
Loraine Charles, an HSE inspector, states the employee was injured when he re-entered a building prepared for demolition and fell 5.5 metres through a hole covered by a thin sheet of metal.
She says: "The risks of falls from height on this demolition project and the measures needed to control those risks had been identified on more than one occasion; Wooldridge simply failed to implement the necessary measures."
According to the HSE, around 150,000 people were injured during 2004-05 due to companies' failure to manage workplace risk.
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