“This case,” said HSE inspector Alastair Choudhury, “highlights both the dangers of working on fragile roofs and the continual exposure of scaffolders to the risk of falling from height.
“It is very sad that a man with a family to support is now unable to work as a result of an entirely preventable incident.”
Inspector Choudhury was speaking after Fenton Magistrates’ Court heard how father-of-three Gary Hampton had shattered his thigh bone, bruised his lungs, broken both wrists, and broken two vertebrae and cracked another.
He then spent six weeks in hospital and will never again be able to carry out any manual work. The injuries he sustained have left him with considerable pain in his left leg and extremely weak wrists, for which he will have to undergo further surgery.
The 28-year-old was installing scaffolding at a factory in Plantation Road, on the Newstead Industrial Estate in Stoke-on Trent, on 30 April 2010, when he fell seven metres through the fragile roof.
“If Fred Lewis Scaffold Company had carried out an adequate survey of this job before starting work and supervised and trained its employees properly,” declared inspector Choudhury, “the risks involved would have been identified.”
Mr Hampton’s employer, Fred Lewis Scaffold Company Limited, whose registered office is in Birmingham Road, West Bromwich, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £19,000 costs.
