A north-east trailer company has been fined more than £5,000 after a worker fell on a “fragile roof” and fractured his hand.
Health and safety chiefs ruled that John Strachan could have been killed as he worked on top of the brake department at Gray and Adams Limited, Fraserburgh, because bosses had failed to put any safety measures in place.
Following the accident in December 2013, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched an investigation, and discovered the roof the 50-year-old tumbled on was made up entirely of asbestos cement sheeting and roof lights.
However, they could not find any fragile roof warning notices to warn staff of the dangers.
The investigation also revealed that Gray and Adams had a risk assessment in place for working on the top of buildings, including ensuring staff wear safety harnesses.
But this particular building had no system in place, nor any means for attaching a harness.
Investigators said the use of “crawling boards” was “not suitable or sufficient”.
The HSE prosecuted the company after discovering that maintenance and cleaning work had been carried out on the roof over a period of time with no safety measures in place.
At a hearing at Peterhead Sheriff Court this week, the freight trailer manufacturer was fined £5,300 after pleading guilty to breaching the Working at Height Regulations Act, 2005.
HSE inspector Niall Miller said the accident could have been fatal.
He added a quarter of all workers killed in work at height incidents involve falls through fragile materials.
“Precautions for working on fragile surfaces should have been taken by the company. Everyone within the maintenance team was fully aware that the roof was fragile,” he said.
“John Strachan was fortunate to have fallen on the roof itself. If he had fallen through it he could have been more seriously injured, or even killed.
“Following this incident a new risk assessment for roof work was carried out by the company and this identified the need to investigate further fall protection measures.”
The company declined to comment on the case last night.