When being on a lunch break may have reduced the legal liability, but it did not eliminate it
What happened?
A 16 year-old apprentice was having a kick-about with workmates in the factory yard of a coachbuilders, when the ball was accidentally kicked up on to a roof. The apprentice used a mobile work platform normally used for working on trailers to try to retrieve it, but as he walked up the roof he lost his footing, and dropped 5.3m through a skylight to the concrete floor below. He received serious head injuries, from which he later died.
The firm was served with an improvement notice after the incident, requiring it to put up prominent warning notices that the roof was fragile.
The coachbuilders expressed its regret over the boy’s death, but said that he had not actually been at work when the fall occurred.
An HSE Principal Inspector said the incident was ‘entirely avoidable.’ He said: “We don’t want to stop healthy break-time activities such as football, but employers need to be fully aware of what their employees get up to on their premises, and take action to protect them.
The dangers of fragile roofs are not always apparent, so access routes to roofs should be appropriately marked.” He concluded: “Access to the roof should be restricted to employees and contractors with adequate knowledge and training in working at height.”
Legal Outcome
The coachbuilders’ defence that the apprentice had not actually been at work when the fall occurred was also the judge’s view, although not that of the HSE, which brought the case.
The HSE Inspector said the HSE was “disappointed” at the judge’s decision, adding that the victim’s family was also unhappy with the outcome of the case.
The coachbuilders were nevertheless fined £7000 and ordered to pay £17,376 in full costs after pleading guilty to breaching reg.8(1)(c) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
What can we learn from what happened?
Yes, it is the case that the apprentice was not technically working at the time of the accident, so the coachbuilder’s legal responsibility is not as applicable, but the accident did happen ‘at work’ and the coachbuilders can’t deny their responsibility for outcomes caused by their own lack of controls – in this case, the access to the mobile work platform and the unprotected fragile roof.
The coachbuilders will have known their staff play football in the lunch break, especially 16 year-old lads. This accident was, sadly, foreseeable.
Source of Information
SHP Online