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UK News - Breaking news in the field of health and safety
Workman almost became another fatal fall from height ...
Workman almost became another fatal fall from height statistic
On 25th May 2001 on a St James Homes construction site at Kew Riverside, Surrey, an employee of Savill Fabrications Limited, of Croydon, Surrey, was measuring the distance between steel beams installed on the top of block walls to support pre-cast concrete floor beams. While doing so he fell a distance of approximately 2.5 metres onto a concrete floor, very nearly becoming one of the 210 of those killed as a result of a fall from height in the period 1998 - 2003. He sustained serious injury in the fall.Savill Fabrications Limited pleaded guilty to a single charge of breaching S.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for which it was fined £4,000 with £10,000 costs at City of London Magistrates' Court.
Information on preventing falls from height can be found on the HSE website at
http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/index.htm
"The investigation of this incident revealed that a fairly routine construction activity - the placing of steel beams for the support of concrete floors - was being undertaken without either suitable supervision, or the workers being made aware of how to carry out such work safely. Falls from height are the biggest cause of death and injury in the construction industry. The risks are obvious and well known and inspectors from HSE's Construction Division expect companies to take adequate measures to either eliminate or control those risks." - HSE Inspector who led the investigation.
