Portal hit with £10k fine for safety breach

Portal Power of Suffolk has been fined £10,000 with costs of £607 after an employee fell 7m through a roof light during a demolition job.

An additional £4,000 was awarded to the injured man, Steven Edkins, for the accident that occurred in September 2005.

The firm was dismantling a warehouse in Sommers Road, Rugby, when Edkins stepped on to a fragile roof light that failed and he fell on to a concrete floor.

David Rose of Portal Power, which specialises in dismantling portal buildings and roofing, pleaded guilty to a breach of section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

HSE investigating inspector Alex Nayar urged firms to think about using nets slung on the underside of roofs as a way of limiting the damage to workers involved in a fall.

[Contract Journal, 25 October 2006, p 4]