Two construction companies have been fined for safety failings after a worker fell a total of three metres, breaking two ribs, while installing windows.
Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court heard how, on 4 November 2014, an employee of Dorset windows contractor GFT Frames, was installing glazed units in a block of flats on a construction site at Western Avenue, Bournemouth, where another local firm, Parsons & Joyce, was principal contractor.
Darren Shepherd, an employee of GFT, had been carrying window frames through the stairwell of the block of flats under construction.
According to a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation: “There were no stairs in place, just a ledge which was part of the structure that would act as a landing half way up the stairs once they were installed. After completing the unloading of all the frames, Shepherd and a colleague were accessing the first floor, up through the void.
“As Shepherd climbed onto the first floor from the ledge, he slipped, falling approximately 1.7m back to the landing and then a further 1.3m to the ground floor. He sustained two fractured ribs and a broken thumb.
The HSE found that GFT had failed to properly plan, supervise or carry out the work at height in a safe manner and that Parsons & Joyce failed to plan manage and monitor the construction phase and failed to provide workers with a site induction.
GFT Frames was fined a total of £6,000, and ordered to pay £9,953 in costs after pleading guilty to an offence under Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
Parsons & Joyce Contractors was fined a total of £20,000, and ordered to pay £9,953 in costs after pleading guilty to offences under Regulation 22(1)(a) and 22(2)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.
