Electrician seriously injured in a fall at work
Prosecution brought following failure to carry out the correct risk assessment procedures - 14th September 2008
A successful
prosecution has been made against a company and a
director following a
workplace accident on the 11th March 2005 in
which an electrician was seriously injured in a
fall from height.
The electrician's
accident
at work happened at the old Pirelli Cables
factory in Erith, where he and a colleague were
reclaiming electrical cables to be reused around the
site. He stood on a steel sheet covering a hole and
it gave way resulting in the
fall from
a height of five and a half metres. He suffered
multiple
injuries in the fall including a broken rib,
broken pelvis, a fracture in his right hip and a
shattered hip socket.
Wooldridge Ecotec Ltd of London were fined £15,000
with £4,971 costs, and company director Nicholas
Anderson was fined £5,000 with £1,657 both after
pleading guilty to a breach of section 3(1) of the
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 which states
that "every employer shall make a suitable and
sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and
safety of his employees to which they are exposed
whilst they are at work."
The Health and
Safety Executives (HSE) investigation showed
prior knowledge of risks in the tower was ignored.
If suitable safety measures had been taken with
regard to these risks and the correct risk
assessment measures taken, this
workplace
accident could have been prevented.
