06/08/2010 - Firm fined for worker's fall injury
A company has been fined £8,000 after a 61-year-old worker was injured in a fall from a scaffold tower while performing routine maintenance.
Barry Derbyshire, from Cheadle, Staffordshire, was immobilised for more than six weeks when he broke a vertebra and crushed another.
Mr Derbyshire was working on a machine used to make exhaust pipes when he fell more than 2m on August 18 last year.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates' Court heard that Mr Derbyshire, who was working for Klarius UK Ltd, stooped to find an oil leak, then stood up and possibly overbalanced, falling off the edge.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed there had never been a guardrail on one edge of the scaffold as it was felt it would interfere with access to the machines.
Klarius UK Ltd, based at Brookhouses Industrial Estate, Cheadle, Staffordshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was also ordered to pay £1,892 costs on top of the fine.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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