Firms fined after employee falls through skylight

Birmingham Magistrates Court

A Birmingham conferencing firm and a video production company have been fined after a photo-shoot in the city went disastrously wrong.

Birmingham City Council brought the case against Boxxed, based at 104-108 Floodgate Street, Digbeth, and HTF Media, based at The Arch, 48-52 Floodgate Street, Digbeth, after a female employee fell almost 12 ft through a skylight.

The accident happened in January 2016 on the flat roof of offices during a photo-shoot for the HTF Media website. As the woman walked over one of three large roof skylights she fell through one, dropping into a common area of the two-storey building, which is owned by Boxxed.

Both companies pleaded guilty to offences under health and safety legislation at Birmingham Magistrates Court.

Boxxed was prosecuted for one offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, for failing to ensure the safety of people not in their employment, by allowing them to go onto the roof without suitable precautions in place to prevent a fall.

The company was fined £6,000 ordered to pay costs of £1,116.

HTF Media was prosecuted for two offences under The Work at Height Regulations 2005, for failing to ensure work at height was properly planned and carried out safely, with suitable safety measures in place; and for failing to ensure there were suitable and sufficient measures to prevent a person falling a distance likely to cause personal injury.

The company was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay to costs of £1,088.

The court heard that both defendants co-operated with the investigation.

Cllr Barbara Dring, chair of the city council’s Licensing and Public Protection Committee, said: “This case shows what can happen if a business and landlord fail to ensure the safety of people on its premises, including work at height. This incident could easily have resulted in the employee sustaining serious or life changing injuries.

“Our officers will continue to take action where minimum standards of health and safety are not met or flouted.”

During the same court session, a Birmingham fishmongers was ordered to pay £13,255 after an employee fell more than 8 ft out of a delivery hatch.

J Vickerstaff and Co, based at Wholesale Markets Precinct, Pershore Street, admitted to a health and safety offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The firm was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,225.60.

The city council had again brought the prosecution after officers investigating the incident found the system for using the delivery hatch was flawed – a lock on one of the doors was faulty and it was not possible to see whether both locks had engaged properly when the doors had been shut after use.

The court heard that on June 23, 2016 the employee had taken a box of fish down the stairs to the landing, where he tripped over the box and fell against the delivery hatch doors, but they opened and he fell backwards out onto the ground where he sustained head and back injuries.

Health and safety officers found there had been no audits or checks of the doors and their use, to ensure suitable measures to prevent a fall from height were in place.

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