Quick links:
Work at height
Construction
News

Devon builder fined for fragile roof fall

Open-access content Thursday 13th July 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Devon builder fined for fragile roof fall

Taunton Magistrates' Court heard this week that 26-year-old Ryan Sartin was repairing a roof at Home Farm, Shepton Beauchamp in Somerset on 23 June 2016 when the incident happened.

T Broom Construction of Pine Park Road, Honiton, Devon pleaded guilty to breaching reg 4 (1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was also ordered to pay costs of £1,016.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the company had failed to install safety netting to mitigate the consequences of a fall and it did not provide a handrail around the roof edge to prevent anyone from falling.

You may also be interested in...

 Developer’s CDM breach left worker paralysed

Monday 17th July 2017
Sukhdev Kundi was working on a stepladder on the first floor of the property when the incident happened on 30 May 2012. As he was pulling cables, he fell off the ladder and through an opening, landing 4 m below.Kundi broke his spine in three places and was paralysed from the chest down. He spent three months in a coma and a total of 12 months in hospital. He died in May 2015, with the cause of death being respiratory failure due to a collapsed lung and pneumonia alongside his spinal injuries and paraplegia.
Open-access content
Image credit: © iStock/Rex_Wholster

 Jury clears builder of HSW Act charge after electrician was left paralysed

Monday 26th June 2017
Samuel Harrington, a 58-year-old builder, was found not guilty on 2 June at St Albans Crown Court after the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had charged him with a s 3 offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.The HSE had brought the charge in 2016 after a two-year investigation into an incident at a property conversion on Upton Road on 31 May 2012, which was owned by Meadows WR.
Open-access content
RBFRS

 Second UK crane collapse in as many months

Monday 31st July 2017
No one was injured when the 35 m tall crane with 60 m horizontal jib toppled onto a building on West Street just before 2pm on Saturday 29 July.Work continued last night (30 July) to dismantle the jib after another crane was used to stabilise it. Engineers from the Netherlands have been called in to assess the damage and head the recovery operation. Thames Valley Police superintendent Robert France said “it may take a number of days to repair the jib and remove the crane from the scene”.
Open-access content
Lewes Crown Court. Image credit: © REX/Shutterstock

 Millionaire businessman and foreman convicted for manslaughter over fatal fall

Wednesday 14th June 2017
The incident, which took place in September 2014, occurred only a year after a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspection identified poor work at height standards at the same site, and work was stopped until improvements were made. The HSE had found numerous openings in the first floor, through which anyone working in the building could have fallen several metres. Training for site workers was also found to be inadequate.
Open-access content
©Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock

 Construction boss jailed for 14 months over London balcony deaths

Tuesday 11th July 2017
Martin Gutaj has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and disqualified from being a company director for four years. He was found guilty of breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act at the Old Bailey in London on 19 May. Gutaj’s company, Martinisation London, has been fined £1.2m after it was previously convicted of two counts of corporate manslaughter and two breaches of s 2(1) of the HSW Act.
Open-access content

 £800k fine for Western Power over linesman’s fall death

Thursday 6th July 2017
Western had instructed a group of 15 employees to replace overhead power lines with insulated cables, Truro Crown Court was told. On the evening of 16 January 2013, linesman Ryan Thomas was working up an electricity pole. One of his colleagues cut a connecting wire and this caused Thomas’s pole to fall to the ground while the 28-year-old was still attached. He sustained internal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Open-access content

Latest from News

web-morrison-shutterstock_1205515750.png

  Morrisons’ £3.5m fine is ‘a warning to all employers’, says council

Friday 24th March 2023
Morrisons supermarket has been fined £3.5 million for failing to ensure the health and safety of an epileptic employee who died after falling from a shop stairway.
Open-access content
jfc

 IOSH launches new five-year strategy

Tuesday 21st March 2023
IOSH launches its new five-year strategy this spring. It will build and act on the reshaped purpose and ambition gained during WORK 2022, which ran from 2017 to 2022.
Open-access content
web_Cranes-on-construction-site_credit_iStock-1352083784.jpg

 Risk & Compliance software provider collaborates with HSE and Costain to improve risk management on worksites

Friday 17th March 2023
A Belfast-based Risk & Compliance software provider has been collaborating with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and construction giant Costain as part of an ongoing project to unlock artificial intelligence’s (AI) potential in improving the management of risks on worksites.
Open-access content

Latest from Construction

web_Cranes-on-construction-site_credit_iStock-1352083784.jpg

 Risk & Compliance software provider collaborates with HSE and Costain to improve risk management on worksites

Friday 17th March 2023
A Belfast-based Risk & Compliance software provider has been collaborating with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and construction giant Costain as part of an ongoing project to unlock artificial intelligence’s (AI) potential in improving the management of risks on worksites.
Open-access content
BVJK

 Musculoskeletal disorders in construction

Thursday 2nd March 2023
Ian Whittles, an HSE construction inspector, reveals the cultural challenges in the sector, the drive behind the Work Right campaign and the musculoskeletal benefits it hopes to achieve.
Open-access content
dru

 Principal contractor handed £146k fine for fatal excavator crush goes into liquidation

Tuesday 14th February 2023
Birch Brothers (Kidderminster) Ltd was the principal contractor on a construction project in Derbyshire that was building a concrete overflow weir structure on the site. The Midlands firm had brought in steel fixers and joiners to undertake the work.
Open-access content

Latest from Safe systems of work

web_United-States-flag_credit_iStock-487485528.png

 Penalties mount for vehicle parts maker on OSHA’s ‘severe violator enforcement programme’

Wednesday 10th August 2022
The US Department of Labor has presented an Ohio-based vehicle parts manufacturer on its ‘severe violator enforcement programme’ with a fine of $480,240 (approx. £373,000) after inspectors found it had continually exposed workers to multiple machine hazards
Open-access content
Dyson HSE lead photo.jpg

 Dyson lands £1.2m fine after worker escapes more serious injuries

Friday 5th August 2022
Dyson Technologies has been handed a £1.2 million fine after a worker at its Wiltshire site narrowly escaped being crushed by a 1.5 tonne milling machine.
Open-access content
web_p74_Talking-Shop.png

 Talking shop: hand dominance

Friday 1st July 2022
How should organisations consider left-handedness in their safety management systems? Four industry leaders offer their thoughts.
Open-access content

Latest from Work at height

web_British-airways-aircraft_credit_Crest-Nicholson_shutterstock_645577237.png

 British Airways subsidiary fined £230K after engineer suffers life-changing fall

Thursday 16th February 2023
We speak to HSE inspector Dr Sara Lumley about a case where an aircraft engineer fell from a maintenance dock, causing life-changing injuries.
Open-access content
IOSH article vehicle (1).jpg

 2.3m fatal fall results in £480,000 fine

Thursday 6th October 2022
We speak with HSE inspector Pippa Trimble about how a lorry driver’s fatal fall resulted in an almost half-million-pound fine
Open-access content
web_Workers-sorting-papers-at-recycling-plant_credit_iStock-497544446.jpg

  Fatal fall lands family-owned firm with £190,000 fine

Tuesday 30th August 2022
A waste and recycling firm has been found guilty of safety failings after an experienced maintenance contractor sustained fatal injuries in a seven-metre fall
Open-access content