A Dorset based joinery company has been fined after a sub-contractor fell through a window opening to the floor below.
Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court heard how a self-employed carpenter of R A Winwood Limited was working on an extension to a domestic property in Upton Way, Broadstone, Poole. Part of the work included fixing plywood to the roof joists. A piece of ply was resting over a window opening in the roof, and on lifting the ply the employee fell approximately three and a half metres through the opening to the floor below.
He suffered a severe fracture to the right ankle and the right wrist, and a fracture to one of his vertebrae.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on 3 December 2014 found the risk of a fall through the window openings had not been considered as part of the risk assessment for the job.
R A Winwood Limited, of Corfe View Road, Corfe, Mullen, Wimborne, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,809.