Man suffered serious injuries after falling through skylight
- May 4, 2016
- EmmaArnold
A man suffered head injuries and broken bones after falling through a fragile skylight whilst working on a roof.
Ian Kirby was replacing broken tiles on a roof when he stepped onto an adjacent fragile roof to remove debris when he fell several feet through a skylight into a tractor scraper below.
He suffered a broken collar bone, broken ribs and a chip to the spine as well as head injuries and was unable to return to work for six months.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) fined his employer after an investigation found there was no suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the job.
Mr Kirby had not undergone any specific training for working at height and was not told about potential risks in relation to working on a roof.
Helen Shaw, Senior Litigation Manager at PotterReesDolan, said:
The provision of a proper risk assessment, clear instructions, appropriate training and suitable equipment would probably have prevented this accident.
It is important to remember that the HSE is able to offer a great deal of extremely useful, practical information and guidance to employers which, if followed, can also help to avoid foreseeable falls through a fragile roof or skylight.
His employer was fined £16,000 and had to pay costs of over £3,000 after pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.