A young male worker suffered serious injuries following a workplace accident in which he fell through the roof of a building.
The man was employed at Plasbech Farm when the incident took place in April of this year. He had been charged with working on a new roof which ran between two existing buildings on the farm.
He was demolishing one of the existing roofs as part of his creation of a steel frame to support the new roof when he lost his footing.
He was pulling up an electrical cable when he accidentally stood on a PVS skylight which gave way, sending him crashing more than five metres to the ground below.
As a result of the fall, the worker suffered severe injuries, breaking his pelvis and two bones in his spine. He also sustained an injury to his arm. Due to the injuries he received, the man is no longer able to find work as a steel erector and has been forced to track down an alternative career.
The contractor employing the worker – Anthony William John Daniel, who was trading as Towy Valley Fabrications at the time of the accident – was found to have breached the law governing workplace injuries as he did not report the accident to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
However, the worker's mother reported the accident and HSE carried out a full investigation. The contractor then went on to plead guilty to breaching regulations relating to the reporting of work accidents, as well as failing to ensure the safety of his workers whilst they were employed to work at height.
He was fined £6,500 and the worker injured in the fall could well go on to make an accident compensation claim.