Worker's fall through glass roof demonstrates importance of health and safety courses

Category: NEBOSH National General Certificate
Tuesday 2nd of March 2010

A company has been fined after one of its workers was injured when they fell through a fragile glass roof.

Cases such as this highlight the importance of health and safety courses in preventing accidents from taking place at work.

Paul Garrod suffered severe bruising as a result of his one metre fall through a fragile roof while installing air conditioning at Express Composites in Ellough, near Beccles.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Mr Garrod's employer, Lowerstoft-based Eastern Hardware Company, had not provided him with adequate training or instruction on working at height.

Lowerstoft Magistrates' Court fined the metal manufacturers £3,000 plus costs, with HSE inspector Julie Jarvey stating that had the worker not fallen on an internal duct the fall may well have been fatal.

To raise awareness of the risks posed by working at height the industry body is currently running the Shattered Lives campaign to reduce the number of injuries that take place in work every year as a result of a fall.

Posted by Lorna Shearer

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