Workman fell from portable accommodation roof
Ashtead Plant Hire Co Ltd of Warrington, trading as APlant, has admitted breaching S.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and been fined £200,000 plus £15,698 costs at Maidstone Crown Court yesterday in connection with the death on 16th August 2006 of a 55-year old employee in an industrial accident.
The deceased climbed on top of a stack of 2 accommodation units to help attach lifting chains so that the top unit could be lifted down, but he fell more than 5 metres and died at the scene.
Ashtead had a written procedure for work on top of accommodation units in its depots and at customers’ sites requiring the wearing of a safety harness and inertia reel line and the use of a secured ladder, but the workers at the depot had not been issued with this equipment or been trained to use it and most did not know the company had the procedure. 15th April 2010.
