Dallas McMillan's Blog

An Aberdeenshire roofing boss has been fined after one of his workers was seriously injured when he fell five metres from the edge of a flat roof.

Mr McNeilly was throwing lead cut-offs onto the ground while standing on the flat roof when he either slipped or inadvertently stepped off the edge. He lost his balance and fell five metres to the ground, landing on his right side near a skip.

His right hip ball joint was severed from his thigh bone and a metal plate and four pins had to be inserted. He was in hospital for four days and was off work for 16 weeks. He has largely made a full recovery but still experiences pain in his hip.

Following the incident, an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that no scaffold platform with guard-rails and toe-boards or any other form of fall prevention equipment were in place to prevent falls either from the edges of the flat roof or at the edge of the lower porch roof.

The investigation also revealed that Mr Mackie had not been to the site that morning or in the three or four days prior to the incident and had not given any specific instructions about how to do the work.

At Aberdeen Sheriff Court the roofing boss was fined £15,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 4 of The Work at Height Regulations 2005.

In 2010/11, 38 people (both employees and self-employed) in Britain died and there were 3,177 serious injuries after work-related falls from height.

The director of a building firm has been prosecuted after a self-employed contractor fell to his death through a fragile roof at an industrial building in Penryn.

Paul Gibbons was carrying out re-roofing work when he fell eight metres through a fragile part of the asbestos cement roof onto the floor below. He was taken to hospital but died of his injuries later that day.

An HSE investigation into the incident found that the company had failed to put adequate safety measures in place at the site despite the risks involved with working at height.

Truro Crown Court heard that the work had not been adequately planned and no safety nets or crash deck platforms had been provided to mitigate the effects of a fall.

HSE Inspector, Jon Harris, speaking after the hearing, said: "Mr Gibbons’ death could have been prevented if the work had been planned properly and industry standards, such as providing netting, had been applied. The risks of working at height are well-known and falls through fragile materials are the cause of one in five deaths in the construction industry."

A self-employed blacksmith and fabricator has been fined after one of his employees was severely injured when he fell more than seven metres from a roof he was working on.

Martin Mundie, 23, from Aberdeenshire, was part of a team carrying out work at a farm to convert a former pig shed into a workshop.

On 10th March 2009, Mr Mundie and three other workers climbed a ladder onto the roof to begin replacing the sheets and capping. A short time into the work, there was a loud crack and one of Mr Mundie's colleagues turned around to see him disappearing through a skylight. He fell approximately eight metres to the concrete floor below.

He sustained a broken arm and wrist, and needed a bone graft as well as two operations to insert three plates and six pins. He was off work for ten months and still has continuing pain in his arm with numbness and limited movement, as well as the scars left by his operations.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that at no time before work started, or while it was ongoing, had the employer assessed any of the risks involved or put a safe system of work in place. HSE inspectors also found that none of the workers had any safety provision while on the roof.

He was fined £4,500 after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Falls from height are the most common cause of fatal injuries in the workplace. In 2009/10, 38 people in Britain died after work-related falls from height.

The owner of a Blackpool double-glazing firm has appeared in court after one of his employees was seriously injured in a fall from a ladder.

The 68-year-old fell nearly five metres and landed on a concrete patio after climbing up a ladder to measure a bathroom window on a house in his village. The employee suffered a broken knee and ankle, four broken ribs, a punctured lung and a badly damaged right foot.

The owner was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the worker had been allowed to work alone without anyone at the foot of the ladder to stop it falling.

Blackpool Magistrates’ Court heard the worker has still been unable to return to work due to the extent of his injuries following the fall.

The owner pleaded guilty to a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to ensure the work was properly planned, adequately supervised and carried out in a safe manner. He was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 in prosecution costs.

Speaking after the hearing, the investigating inspector at HSE, Allen Shute, said:

"Workers can easily be killed or seriously injured in a fall of just a few metres. It’s therefore vital employers properly manage work at height."

Last year, 38 workers were killed in Great Britain as a result of a fall and more than 4,000 suffered major injuries.