The Dangers of Working at Height
The dangers of working at height were raised this week after yet another court case involving a young worker injuring himself in a fall. Sadly the director of the company he worked for, AA Construction, and the company failed him in their lack of planning on the job. Although they were fully aware that the roof and skylights were fragile they failed to put plans in place that would prevent an accident.
As a result of the fall the man named James Froud, fell to the floor and suffered from nasty injuries. He was in hospital for ten days and was required to wear a back brace and use crutches for several months while he healed. This meant he was unable to return to work for a long period affecting his financial life as well as his health. The company and the director were found to have multiple failings that led to them being prosecuted and fined. The director was ordered to pay £15,000 and £2,000 in costs while the company had to pay £10,000 and £1,000 in costs.
The Risks of Working at Height
The risks of working at height are one of the reasons why managers and supervisors need to have training. Falls from height is the leading cause of fatalities in the workplace and is responsible for many injuries.
It is essential to control the risks when working at height, and these skills can be learnt through training on courses:
- CIEH working at height
- Working at height
- Working at height - fragile and degraded surfaces
- Working at height with access equipment
- Working at height - scaffold and scaffold towers
- Working with heights
Related Courses
- Risk assessment course
- NEBOSH IIRSM Certificate in Managing Risk
- NEBOSH HSE Introduction to Incident Investigation
Related Content
- Meet your legal requirement with a risk assessment
- Occupational health and safety risks you may not be thinking about
- How are your risk assessments?
- Performing risk assessments
- Use risk assessments to avoid prosecution
- Reducing risk in the workplace
- Working at Height - learn how to reduce the risks
- Are you putting your workers lives at risk?
- Reducing the risk of fire with NEBOSH fire safety training