Safety Signs News

Worker injures back highlighting importance of safety signs and procedures

18th April 2011 | Health and Safety Signs

Posted by Ben Alexander

Falls from a height at work caused 4,000 major injuries last year, highlighting the need for health and safety signs to warn workers of the dangers.

A company has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to provide workers with proper safety equipment, which resulted in a man falling from the roof of a two-storey house.

The worker suffered serious back injuries after his roof ladder gave way while he was installing a flue liner down the inside of a chimney.

Leeds Magistrates' Court fined Fluetech Ltd, the worker's employees, £13,500 with £3,873 costs.

HSE inspector, David Welsh, said: "This worker has suffered horrendous and life-changing injuries as a result of the company's numerous failures.

"What makes matters worse is that, after the man was taken to hospital severely injured, the company allowed its employees to finish that job and subsequently similar jobs, all using the same unsafe systems of work."

Mr Welsh added that the company was "very poor" at assessing and managing the risks of working at height.

Last week, an animal grain company was fined after a worker fell from an excavator bucket onto a concrete floor. ADNFCR-2754-ID-800503292-ADNFCR