Health and safety failings led to potentially deadly fall from roof at Caithness farm
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A worker suffered serious injuries after he fell through the grain store roof he was repairing at a Caithness farm.
Alan Henderson landed on the interior concrete floor of the building, 4.5 metres below.
Wick Sheriff Court heard on Monday that Mr Henderson sustained multiple fractures and hasn’t worked since the accident in 2019.
His boss at the time, William Swanson (51) admitted having failed, under Health and Safety Work at Height regulations 2005, to take proper steps to ensure that the work was properly planned and executed in such a way that was as safe as possible.
Swanson, of Gravestone Lodge, Gillock, was fined £2000.
The Crown Office's Health and Safety Investigations Unit said the case should act as a warning to other employers in the construction industry.
Swanson's firm LTS Construction had been hired by the owners of Wester Olrig Farm, Castletown, to replace 30 storm-damaged cement sheets and Perspex panels on the roof of the grain store.
He arrived at the farm on September 25 accompanied by two employees, Harry Henderson, now 55, and his brother Alan, now 54.
The farm owners had marked out the damaged roof parts with spray paint on the floor of the store. A JCB Loadall Telescopic Handler had been put in place against the building to receive the damaged sheets.
Fiscal David Barclay told the court that Harry Henderson had used a ladder to get onto the roof and walked across the bolts that secured the sheets onto steel batons. He was joined a few minutes later by Swanson, who proceeded to assist him in removing the bolts.
This incident could well have proved fatal and it has irrevocably changed a man’s life.
Minutes later, Alan Henderson, “seeking to be helpful,” arrived on the roof to help in getting the job done.
The fiscal went on: " While there, Alan stepped onto a moss-covered perspex panel which gave way beneath his weight and he fell through it onto the concrete floor below. His brother heard a cracking noise and turned around to see a hole in the panel through which he could observe his brother lying on the concrete floor of the store.
"An ambulance was summoned and Mr Henderson was put into the recovery position until it arrived. He had a huge egg on his forehead, his nose was bleeding and he was sick.”
Mr Barclay said that Mr Henderson suffered fractures to his skull, ribs, pelvis and wrist as a result of the fall and continued: “He has not worked since this incident and remains under the care of an orthopaedic specialist. Mr Henderson suffers from short-term memory loss and reports some anxiety."
Health and Safety Executive regulations stipulate that if access onto a fragile roof could not be avoided, Swanson should have ensured that perimeter edge protection, such as crawling boards or staging on the roof should have been employed to spread the weight of persons walking on the roof and safety nets erected beneath the roof, none of which were in place.
The HSE’s investigation found that the ladder used to access the roof was not long enough to provide a suitable handhold for a worker to move off the ladder onto the roof and made the point that Swanson and Harry Henderson had been working without any fall protection when Alan Henderson joined them.
Solicitor Gavin Anderson stressed that Swanson had admitted responsibility at an early stage and accepted with regret that the required safety measures had not been put in place. He appealed to the sheriff to impose a financial penalty on Swanson, a first offender whose firm had since ceased trading. Swanson subsequently found employment with a groundworks company.
Sheriff Berry said that he had not lost sight of the fact that Alan Henderson had suffered severe injuries.
However, he told Swanson: "It is clear that you are highly regarded in the community. It seems to me that the correct way to deal with this case, given your acceptance of your guilt at an early stage, is to impose a fine.”
The £2000 fine will be paid at the rate of £200 per month.
Alistair Duncan, head of the Crown Office's Health and Safety Investigation Unit, said: "This was an accident that resulted in severe injuries that could have been avoided if William Swanson had put in place the appropriate planning and protective measures.
“This incident could well have proved fatal and it has irrevocably changed a man’s life.
"Falls from height are usually the greatest single cause of death and serious injury to workers within the construction industry.
“Hopefully this prosecution will remind other employers that failure to fulfil their obligations can have severe and potentially tragic consequences and that they will be held to account for their failings."
