Staveley builders fined as roof fall leaves contractor with broken neck

The builder landed on a concrete floor after a joist he was sitting astride collapsed and gave way while he was working on a rear house extension.

Nottingham Magistrates’ Court heard the accident happened as Bobby Oldham Construction Limited were hired to complete work on a Nottingham home extension on June 19.

The job consisted of an extension to the rear of the property, which contained a skylight and wooden joists.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found platforms on the roof were missing edge protection and there were no fall mitigation measures such as airbags.

While work was also unsupervised - making it impossible to identify unsafe working methods.

Bobby Oldham Construction Limited, of Market Street, Staveley, Chesterfield, admitted breaching the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

They were fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,515.

Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Phill Gratton said: “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident.

“It was caused by the failure of the host company to implement safe systems of work, and failure to ensure that work at height was properly planned and appropriately supervised.

“This risk was further amplified by the company’s failure to undertake a number of simple safety measures including conducting pre-start checks on the training of workers, planning work to ensure that working methods were safe and supervision to ensure that dangerous working methods could be observed and challenged.“

A message from Phil Bramley, Derbyshire Times Editor: Support your Derbyshire Times by becoming a digital subscriber. You will see 70 per cent fewer ads on stories, meaning faster load times and an overall enhanced user experience. Click here to subscribe