Lawford Kidd's Blog

A property company based in Lancashire has been found guilty of exposing workers to dangerous conditions when working at heights.

Responding to complaints about the working conditions and the safety conditions for workers, the Health and Safety Executive sent officials to investigate the claims. The inspectors found workers stripping slates from a fragile roof without any measures in place to prevent a fall through it. The report from officials stated that the worker was in a life-threatening position and could have easily perished as a result of the lack of health and safety procedures.

As a result of the report and findings of inspectors KML (Properties) Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of Work at Height Regulations and was fined £10,400 as well as pleading guilty to other breaches of employment law.

A business man in charge of converting an old mill in Blackburn has been jailed, and his father, the owner of the building, given a suspended jail sentence following an incident in which a Lithuanian worker died in a fall.

The worker, Ivars Bahmanis, was involved in building work at the former canal works building. While he was working alone he fell nearly eight metres, due to a complete lack of safety measures in place, and died as a result.

During the investigation the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered that previously another employee had fallen from a height and broken his leg at the same site. This accident was not reported to HSE.

Discretionary Fatal Accident Inquiries (FAIs) for circumstances in which a Scottish person dies abroad and their body is repatriated to Scotland are to be allowed for the first time across the nation, following the introduction of The Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Bill.

While the decision whether or not to hold an FAI still remains with the Lord Advocate, who must believe there to be real prospect of establishing the circumstances of the death abroad and that said circumstances have not been already established by way of investigation, the Bill is aimed at modernising and strengthening the FAI process in Scotland.

A worker has been left paralysed after falling almost four metres through a fragile roof light in Lauder.

Neil Knox, from East Lothian, was apparently a time served and experienced worker, but had no formal training in roof work. At the time of the incident, he was working to replace plastic roof lights on a farm shed. He doesn’t remember how he came to fall, but was found by a colleague lying on the floor beneath a roof light that had a large hole in it.

Mr Knox was airlifted to hospital with broken ribs, a broken sternum and punctured lungs. His spine was fractured in two places, damaging his spinal cord, which has left him confined to a wheelchair with no movement or sensation in his legs. He also has only 50% lung efficiency due to partial paralysis of his chest muscles.

A roofing company from Bristol has recently appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, where it pled guilty to failing to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to its employees when working at heights after an employee fell through a roof light.

The incident happened in July last year at a warehouse in Gorgie Park Road, Edinburgh, where three employees of the roofing company were carrying out patch repairs on the flat roof of the vacant warehouse.

The case was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which found that the risk assessment carried out was not appropriate for the task, and that the system of work was unsafe. The HSE concluded that the accident could have been avoided had reasonably practicable precautions been taken.