A solar panel firm has been fined £153,000 after a worker was seriously injured in a fall through a fragile roof light at a private home in Kent.
The worker, from Ashford, fractured his shin and a vertebra in the incident at Elvington Lane in Hawkinge on 30 April 2013.
The roof light the 32-year-old man crashed through was on an outbuilding housing a swimming pool. Although the water partially cushioned his fall, he made a heavy impact with the side and flooring around the pool, and was unable to return to work until January this year and only then on a part-time basis.
Glasgow-based P V Solar UK Limited was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court today after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that more could and should have been done to prevent the fall.
The court had heard in a hearing in January 2016, when the company pleaded guilty to three health and safety offences, that the injured worker was part of a three man team working on the pool building to replace faulty solar panels that were initially installed by the same company in April 2011.
—
Ensure you have the right protection in place. Get in touch if you require a solution to allow for safe working on a fragile roof. Call +44 (0)20 3819 7199.