Industry news
Farm owners fined over hurt worker
Posted Fri, 06 May 2011
A worker's fall through the fragile roof of a barn, resulting in multiple injuries, has brought fines for the pair who own and run the Hertfordshire farm concerned.
James Reay and his daughter Elizabeth were each fined £4,000 after admitting breaching the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
The injured worker, 39-year-old Stefan Wasilewski, had been cleaning the barn roof at Ugley Hall Farm, Ugley, Bishop's Stortford with a colleague when the accident happened on August 6 last year. Standing on scaffold boards, they brushed the area with brooms as ordered by the Reays.
However, the asbestos cement roof cracked and Mr Wasilewski fell 5m on to the concrete floor, suffering multiple fractures to his pelvis and ribs and being rendered unable to walk for several months.
Elizabeth and James Reay, trading as H R Reay, were ordered to pay £2,083.30 in costs between them.
Last year, more than 4,000 workers suffered major injuries as the result of falls from height and 12 lost their lives.
Copyright © Press Association 2011
Work at Height Regulations 2005