Personal Injury Solicitors

A Cardiff-based construction company has been sentenced, after a worker fell down a lift pit and sustained life changing injuries.

The worker was employed by Jehu Project Services Ltd at a construction site in Pontcanna, Cardiff when the incident occurred on 8 July 2015. Stephen Harrison – a specialist drilling contractor – was employed by Jehu to help refurbish a 73-bed care home, when he fell into the basement of a lift pit under construction.

Mr Harrison stepped onto the ground floor, having been working off a tower scaffold – but stood on a loose concrete block, causing him to fall backwards head first into a skip full of rubble on the floor below.

A specialist Fire and Rescue team was nearby – and, after stabilising Mr Harrison, the team attached him to the hook of a tower crane and winched him out of the pit, over the site and into the car park of a nearby housing estate, where an ambulance was waiting.

Mr Harrison suffered shattered vertebrae, five broken ribs and a punctured lung, spending 18 days in hospital as a result. He is still recovering – and although not paralysed, HSE says his injuries are life changing and he will not return to work.

An HSE investigation found that Jehu had been using a system of lightweight barriers around the edges of the drop, along with beanbags at the bottom of the hole. However, these were incompatible with all the work that needed to be done by the different contractors and had been removed.

Following the incident, all of the danger areas were fenced with scaffolding.

Newport Crown Court heard that there were numerous management failings associated with the project – including a lack of effective site management and supervision, a construction plan which did not properly consider obvious working at height risks, and a lack of an effective Temporary Works Management System.

Jehu Project Services Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

The company was fined £143,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £15,029.30.

After sentencing, HSE Inspector Liam Osborne, who brought the case, said:

“Jehu had been given many warnings in the past by HSE about the lack of effective planning, managing and monitoring on their construction sites – as well as warnings about unsafe working at height.

“The court heard some really positive steps the company are now taking to put these matters right, including making substantial management changes.

“It is crucial that construction firms properly think through the risks involved before starting work – they then need to ensure there is a workable plan to iron out, or manage the resultant dangers.

“There is a clear hierarchy for managing work at height risks – site managers need to prevent it if possible and then provide suitable fixed barriers.

“Lower-order measures – such as soft-landing systems or the use of harnesses – should only be selected as a last resort and if it is safe and appropriate to do so”.

Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors – No win no fee Falls from Height Claims

Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors can advise those injured in falls from height caused by the negligence of a third party on how to make a no win no fee claim for compensation, including claims relating to:

• Accidents at work
• Balcony falls
• Children’s accidents
• Faulty goods claims
• Holiday accidents
• Industrial accidents
• Public liability claims
• Sports injuries.

Falls from height claims usually have to be made within three years of the incident – children can make personal injury claims up to the age of 21.

Duncan Lewis also offers supportive legal advice to bereaved families whose loved one has lost their life as a result of injuries sustained in a fall from height caused by negligence and who wish to make a compensation claim.

For expert legal advice on no win no fee Falls from Height Claims, call Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors on 0333 772 0409.