High dangers

Posted: Tuesday 9th, December 2014

High dangers caught on camera [see HSE website]

http://press.hse.gov.uk/2014/high-dangers-caught-on-camera/?eban=govdel-
images&cr=02-Dec-2014


Date: 2 December 2014

A Berkshire construction firm has been fined after three workers were
photographed on a roof and ladder platform in Windsor without any safety
measures in place.

Able Building & Roofing Services Ltd, which operates across the South East, was
prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident at a
two-storey house in Windsor between 16-18 October 2013.

Reading Magistrates’ Court heard (1 Dec) that the householder, who hired the firm
for roofing work, was so concerned by the obvious dangers faced by the workers,
he took photos and sent them to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which
investigated.

The photographs showed workers using an unguarded ladder platform that had
not been erected properly, and also working on top of the main roof without any
means of preventing falls.

HSE told the court that the company had failed to plan the work at height, which is
inherently hazardous, leaving their workers without adequate protection against
falls of up to six metres.

Able Building and Roofing Services Ltd, of Nine Mile Road, Finchampstead, near
Wokingham, was fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay £986 in costs after
pleading guilty to two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Dominic Goacher said:

“The company put the lives of three of their workers at risk by carrying out the
roofing job in a totally unsafe manner. Anyone falling from the roof of a two-storey
house would likely be killed and that type of disregard for safety is totally
unacceptable.

“Able Building and Roofing failed to follow basic, and well-known, safety
precautions and heed the guidance available to roofing companies.

“If the work had been planned correctly, more suitable equipment, such as a
scaffold, and effective fall protection measures would have been in place. Where
practical when working on roofs, there should be fully-guarded platforms or good
edge protection in place to stop falls happening.”

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