A construction company and building owner have been prosecuted after a builder suffered  fractured vertebrae when he fell through the roof of a building.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) decided to prosecute the worker’s employer Hartog Hutton Ltd, as well as the owner of the building, Fluorocarbon Company Ltd.

On Christmas Eve 2008, 63-year-old Danny Langdon of Sudbury in Suffolk was working for Hartog Hutton Ltd, which had been contracted by the Fluorocarbon Company to carry out repairs to its factory roof.

Mr Langdon was on the roof when he fell seven metres through the factory roof light, hit a gantry crane and landed on machinery below. He sustained fractured vertebrae in the incident and has been unable to work since then.

On 26 April, 2010 at East Hertfordshire Magistrates’ Court, Fluorocarbon Company Ltd – based at Caxton Hill in Hertford – admitted breaching Regulation 4(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 by failing to take reasonable steps to ensure that the contractor engaged to undertake the work was competent to do so. The company was fined £5,000 with £5,195 costs.

On Wednesday (19/05/10) at St Albans Crown Court, Hartog Hutton Limited – registered at Winchester Road, Chandlers Ford in Hampshire, but based at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk – pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, by failing to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks of working on a roof.  

The company also pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 9(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, by failing to take reasonably practicable steps to prevent a person working near or on a fragile roof.

The company also admitted breaching Regulation 4(1)(c)(i) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 by failing to ensure that employees working on a roof were competent to do so.

Hartog Hutton Ltd was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £7,076 costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector John Berezansky said that working at height was one of the most ‘obvious and wellknown’ dangers for those involved in repairing or the maintenance of buildings – and that the incident was ‘entirely avoidable’ and should not have occurred.

‘Mr Langdon is lucky to be alive,’ said Mr Berezansky. ‘More than 4,000 employees suffered serious injury after falling from height last year and 15 were killed.’

‘Employers need to plan ahead and assess potential risks before carrying out any work at height,’ he added.

'HSE runs a high-profile Shattered Lives campaign all about slips, trips and falls in the workplace,' said Mr Berezansky. ‘I would urge all employers to find out more by visiting the website.

‘HSE will continue to prosecute companies that fail to carry out their duties, which includes both employers and firms hiring contractors to do specialist work for them,’ he warned.

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