Company fined £8,000 for breaching Health and Safety Act

A firm from Stoke-on-Trent has been fined £8,000 for a breach of section 2(1) of the Health and Safety Act after one of its workers fell from scaffolding during a workplace accident.

Rafferty Chimneys Engineering Ltd pleaded guilty to breaking the law in a hearing at Newcastle-under-Lyme magistrates' court following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which left Kevin Ford in plaster for four months.

Mr Ford suffered a serious heel injury after falling one-and-a-half metres from the scaffolding while he worked at a site in Tunstall - which is a town in Staffordshire - in March 2009.

The company was also forced to pay £5,000 in costs as a result of the incident after the HSE ruled that the guard rail on its tower scaffold was too low and also had the incorrect boards to allow Mr Ford to work safely.

HSE inspector Guy Dale said: "Working at height is the most common cause of workplace injuries and this incident shows the very real dangers, no matter what the distance to the ground."

Posted by Patrick White 

17/08/2010 16:24