04 June 2009
Jocelyn Dorrell

A carpenter was unable to work for more than six months after falling five metres on a construction site in Waltham Forest, City of London magistrates have heard.

The incident happened during the construction of a school. Bouygues (UK) - a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction - was principal contractor for the project.

The carpenter had been trying to tighten concrete shutters so concrete could be cast for the next floor. He had to lean out beyond the guard rails to reach the bracket and as he did so he lost his balance and fell to a platform more than five metres below.

He suffered a fractured collar bone, fractured ribs, air and blood in his chest cavity and a dislocated thumb, and had to stay in hospital for six days.

An HSE investigation revealed that when the concrete slabs were installed - before the shutters were put in place - workers wore harnesses and would hook their lanyards onto either steelwork or a horizontal running line. But there was no risk assessment or method statement for securing or releasing the shuttering.

There were no suitable anchor points in the area in which the carpenter was working for the type of lanyard provided, and no one in the slab team had been trained on how to rescue a person suspended in a harness.

London-based Bouygues (UK) was fined £18,000 plus £2796 costs for failing to ensure the safety of workers on the site, contrary to Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. Bouygues must also pay £5000 compensation to the injured worker.

"At best the company were placing reliance on a poorly supervised and inadequately trained system of harnessing to mitigate the consequence of falls," said HSE inspector Dominic Elliss.

"A cherry picker was already on site and could have been used to provide far safer access."

Categories: Construction, Enforcement (prosecutions), Enforcement (prosecutions), Prosecutions, Work at height



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