Deborah Services fined heavily after scaffold collapse

Deborah Services of Wakefield was fined £110,000 last week for a scaffolding collapse in May 2005 in Edinburgh in which a worker fell and was injured.

Main contractor, Beechwood Development of Clarkston, Glasgow, was fined £22,000 for the incident which took place as they were building new flats at Hawkhill Avenue in the city.

Both companies pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. 

In the incident  two sections of a 16m high loading bay tower collapsed causing a subcontractor, Paul Laidlaw, to fall into the components of the collapsing tower.  He was struck and suffered a severe head laceration, a broken wrist and rib.

The loading bay tower had been severely overloaded with a one tonne pallet of building blocks.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation also revealed a number of other factors had contributed to the collapse.  They included failure to appreciate that such a structure would need to be designed, failure to give information on safe loading and failure to control the loading of material on to the structure. 

Its principal construction inspector, Jim Skilling, said afterwards: "This was an extremely serious accident which could  have lead to a loss of life.  The scaffolding tower was not designed and then overloaded and this led to its collapse.  This accident was entirely preventable and the fines imposed today reflect the seriousness of this case."

As the case was prosecuted under Scottish law no costs were involved.