A cleaning company in Surrey has been prosecuted for safety failings after one of its employees suffered life-changing injuries when he fell six metres through a fragile roof light.
The 36-year-old worker, who has asked not to be named, was one of a team sent by Cleansafe Services (UK) Ltd. in Croydon to conduct a contract-clean of acrylic roof lights at an Eastbourne car rental premises.
The incident occurred when the worker was inspecting a cleaned light from the ground and had just gone back to the roof. He inadvertently trod on one of the roof lights, leading the acrylic to give way and sending him falling through the roof light and onto the concrete floor below.
The worker sustained a complex skull fracture as well as brain damage, a number of arm and wrist fractures and several broken ribs. He has since lost his sense of smell and taste, is totally deaf in one ear and has impaired sight in one eye. He spent almost two months in hospital, in an induced coma for part of the time and is now unable to work.
The incident, which happened in December 2013, was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Eastbourne Magistrates’ Court heard last week (6th March) that the investigation revealed the ‘grossly inadequate’ safety precautions taken by the firm.
The injured man and his colleague had got on top of the roof via a mobile elevating platform, however they had taken just six scaffold boards for them to stand on whilst they jet-washed the roof lights. After they had cleaned two of the lights, the worker went down to inspect the lights from below and fell when he returned to the roof.
The HSE served a Prohibition Service on the firm preventing any further work from being carried out until a number of safety measures were implemented. HSE said the company could have hired a mobile working platform with an extended reach meaning the workers wouldn’t have needed to go on the roof at all.
Cleansafe was fined £60,000 alongside prosecution costs of £5,741 after it pleaded guilty to three breaches of the Work at Height Regulations.
HSE inspector Amanda Huff said after the case: “The victim of this case suffered life-threatening, and now life-changing, injuries and there is no doubt that this could have been a fatality.
“Cleansafe Services is a commercial company operating throughout the country but had no experience of working on fragile roofs. The risk assessment was not fit for the purpose and the result was the limited safety measures it took to protect the workforce were grossly inadequate.
“It is unacceptable for firms to put their employees at needless risk. There are several people killed each year and many more badly injured falling through fragile roofs. Work should be planned so no one needs to get onto the roof. Where it is necessary, safeguards such as edge protection, safety nets and roof stagings must be used.”