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Roofing company's inadequate risk assessment contributed...
Roofing company's inadequate risk assessment contributed to serious injury
The prosecution of roofing company Foildek Roofings Ltd, of Manchester, illustrates the need to assess risks properly prior to project work to enable safe systems of work and method statements to be devised and implemented.
During work at Leggett Freightways Ltd's premises in Reddish, Stockport, 3 of Foildek's employees were working on corrugated roofs constructed from asbestos corrugated roof sheets and transparent roof lights that should always be treated as fragile. They worked without the benefit of a scaffolding platform to gain safe access to the roof, and without edge protection. On 7th May 2004, one of the employees stepped on and fell some 7m through an asbestos cement corrugated roof panel onto the warehouse floor, suffering 2 broken wrists, a broken right ankle, broken left elbow, and a fractured skull with bleeding on the brain.
Inadequate method statement
Foildek pleaded guilty to a breach of S.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for which it was fined £15,000, with £6,939 costs, at Manchester Crown Court.
Foildek had drawn up an inadequate method statement:
although it identified risks with moving, lifting and handling materials it failed to provide a safe system for raising of replacement roof sheets from ground to roof; lifting by one man pushing panels up a ladder to another standing on the roof was unsafe;
it did not state the width of tower scaffold required, had no detail about the standard of tower scaffold erection and failed to identify that it would be needed as a base from which to lay roof boards or the need for edge protection;
it failed to provide edge protection to protect the men from a fall from the roof;
it failed to impose control measures to prevent the risk of falls through the roof on any of 3 warehouse roofs.
Comment:
"Plenty of guidance is available to the roofing industry. The risks associated with falls through fragile roofs are well known and documented. However in this case Foildek failed to have proper regard for the safety of men who were placed at risk and, as a result, when an accident occurred. Mr ____ was seriously injured.
Had he been provided with a safe system of work in the form of appropriate method statements with suitable and sufficient risk assessments and had these been enforced then the accident almost certainly would not have occurred.
The risks associated with working on fragile roofs are well known and guidance on how to do so is available from HSE." - HSE Inspector who carried out HSE's investigation of the incident.
