A builder has been fined for failing to ensure the safety of one of his employees, who suffered a fatal accident.
While
carrying out construction work in Alne, North Yorkshire, Derek Wensley,
a self- employed labourer working for Peter Wright (trading as PW
Joinery and Building Services) fell from an unsecured stepladder while
travelling from the ground to the first floor of a two storey
extension.
Teeside Crown Court heard the stepladder was too short
to reach the first floor, which was accessed by passing through a gap
in the flooring between joists. Mr Wensley was carrying a bucket of
mortar at the time he fell. He suffered fatal head injuries.
The
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuting told the hearing the
incident could easily have been avoided. It said Peter Wright had not
carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and failed to plan
and supervise work at height appropriately.
HSE told the court
that had he done so he would have identified failings in the standard of
access to and from the first floor and ensured that a safe system of
work was implemented. His failure to comply with his legal duty of care
to those working on site led to the worker suffering fatal injuries.
Mr
Wright pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a single charge of
Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
Peter
Wright trading as PW Joinery and Building Services of West End Cottage,
Baldersby, Thirsk, was fined £10,000 with £19,000 costs.
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