Film footage for a TV documentary about medics secured a conviction against a British company carrying out construction work after the death of a 25-year-old. Regentford Ltd, of Rookwood Road, Hackney was fined £250,000 ($386,175) after being convicted of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act et al 1974, following an eight-day trial at Croydon Crown Court. They were also ordered to pay costs of £71,603.01($95,158).
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the death of employee a mason and plasterer. On February. 24, 2005, the worker was re-pointing brickwork when he fell from scaffolding at the rear of a building in High Street, South Norwood, Croydon. He suffered severe head injuries in the first story fall, was taken to King's College Hospital and died on March 1, 2005.
When HSE went to investigate, the found the scaffolding the employee had been standing on at the time of his accident had been removed. During the investigation HSE discovered a BBC television crew filming the documentary Trauma, accompanied the medical staff called to the accident site. The footage showed the scaffolding to be in very poor condition with insufficient guardrails and an inadequate working platform.
The HSE investigation indicated health and safety on the site was not managed appropriately by Regentford Ltd. – no one was in effective control of health and safety on the site.
HSE Inspector Nigel Evans noted, "The footage from the documentary crew showed the scaffolding to be totally inadequate for the job in hand. We will use all evidence at our disposal to prosecute employers who fail to manage health and safety risks properly. An employee needlessly lost his life on a small construction site, and it is these smaller sites where a significant proportion of fatalities in the industry occur each year. (workersxzcompxzkit)
"The message is simple: whatever the size of company or site, you have exactly the same responsibility to make sure employees have a safe and healthy working environment – and we can and will prosecute if these duties are neglected."
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers’ Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. He can be contacted at: He can be contacted at: Robert_Elliott@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
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