A Staffordshire construction company and its director have been sentenced after a worker fell through an unprotected stairwell opening during apartment construction, sustaining serious injuries.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old labourer had been assisting with wall insulation installation on the first floor when he placed a ladder across the stairwell to reach a high corner.\u00a0 He fell through the opening, sustaining serious injuries, including skull and back fractures.<\/p>\n
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that BHG (Stone) had not properly planned the work at height, nor put in place adequate safety measures.<\/p>\n
The director was also found to have allowed unsafe practices to continue in close proximity to the injured worker.<\/p>\n
BHG (Stone) pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined \u00a316,000 plus \u00a34,000 costs. Director Alistair Howells, 58, was fined \u00a32,000 with \u00a31,386 costs.<\/p>\n
HSE Inspector Sara Andrews said: \u201cThis incident highlights the importance of undertaking a thorough assessment of the risks associated with all work at height activities and ensuring suitable control measures are in place. Had the work been properly planned and sequenced, and suitable work equipment provided, this incident would not have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An investigation found that the Staffordshire firm had not properly planned the work at height, nor put in place adequate safety measures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266702,"featured_media":2100078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120902],"coauthors":[127717],"class_list":["post-2110555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","tag-featured-story","tag-staffordshire"],"yoast_head":"\n