Construction Site Dangers

A property developer was fined £10,000 last week for operating an unsafe construction site.

The developer had been ordered by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to stop work on three occasions after inspections revealed open edges aound foundations which employees could have easily fallen into. There were also dangerous amounts of rubble left lying around the site and unsafe scaffolding, including missing guard rails.

As we wrote last week, the HSE remind us that falls from height are the biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the main causes of injury. On average 12 people are killed every year as a result of falls from height at work.

There are a number of Regulations in place to protect employees, including Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 which provides; “Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.”

There are also Regulations specific to the Construction Industry and Regulation 27(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states; “Every part of a construction site shall, so far as is reasonably practicable, be kept in good order and every part of a construction site which is used as a place of work shall be kept in a reasonable state of cleanliness.”

Gregory Abrams Davidson Solicitors specialise in Employer’s Liability Law and we can advise you if you have suffered any injury whilst at work.