Company Fined Following Roof Accident
The company Raicam Clutch LTD, a British construction company was fined £5,000 (over $8,000 US) after one of its employees suffered injuries to his back and his neck after falling off a roof. The incident occurred in 2009 when the man tripped on a cable on the roof and fell 3.5 meters (11 ft) and suffered five broken vertebrae and whiplash on his neck. The company was fined because they failed to provide protection from falling for its employees.
The report states there was no netting or landing bags on the ground to prevent serious injuries. The company pleaded guilty to breaching the Work at Height Regulations developed in 2005. The injured employee could not return to work for four months following the accident. An inspector for the Health and Safety Executive argued that this incident could have been completely avoided if the company had taken steps to provide safety to its workers.
The inspector for the HSE argued that if the victim had been provided with some sort of protection from the fall, this incident would have been completely avoidable. This is one factor that some companies fail to take due to negligence or simple oversight. Regardless of the reason for the lack of protection, the companies that the victims work for should be held liable if there is significant proof that protection from the fall was possible. In this incident, the company could have provided padding on the ground in the event of a fall and the worker would not have been out of work for four months. As a result of this incident, the employee lost wages and suffered extremely serious injuries.
