Property owner sentenced after worker’s life-changing injuries

A property owner has been handed a 12-month community order and must do 80 hours of unpaid work after a worker sustained life-changing injuries on a project.

The accident happened on 8 October 2021, when 40-year-old Steven Tyson was working on a barn conversion at a property in Derbyshire.

The outbuildings were being converted into holiday let accommodation when a stone gable wall collapsed on him while he was clearing up outside.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Nigel Edwards failed to have a structural assessment of the outbuildings carried out prior to starting the works at his home in Woodhouses.

Tyson suffered serious injuries, including a fractured skull, a bleed on the brain and multiple broken bones, including 11 ribs. He was taken to hospital, where he spent the next 18 days in “immense pain”.

The married father-of-two has been left blind in one eye and lost hearing in his right ear. He said he might be unable to work in construction again.

“The injuries have also impacted on my hobbies, which included karate, dog walking and metal detecting,” Tyson said. “I have also had therapy sessions to try to come to terms with the physical and psychological impacts of what happened

“This is something I thought I would never have to do.”

HSE said that lack of planning for dismantling parts of the building safely exposed workers and members of the public to the risk of injury or death from the full or partial collapse of the structures.

Edwards pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 19(1) and 20(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. He was made the subject of a 12-month community order, told to complete 80 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £4,097.94 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Robert Gidman said: “It is vital that all demolition and dismantling is adequately planned and that a competent structural engineer is engaged by those in control of work where there is the risk of collapse of any structure.

“If this project had been planned effectively, engaging the right people at the right time to ensure a suitable safe system of work was implemented, the life-changing injuries sustained by the injured person could have been prevented.”