Solar installer falls through fragile farm roof at Kemble, suffering brain injuries

What happened

On 26 August 2015, during work to fit solar panels on the roof of a dairy unit at Kemble Farm, part of the Bathurst Estate at Kemble, a worker fell through a skylight about 7.8 metres onto a concrete floor. He and a colleague had gone onto the roof to take measurements, and neither was wearing a harness. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and fractures to his jaw, limbs and pelvis, spent three weeks in hospital, and needed further care and many operations.

Switch Capital EMEA Ltd held a contract worth 185,000 pounds plus VAT for the work. The worker was a novice who had started nine days earlier. The roof was signed as fragile and there was no netting beneath it. Following a Health and Safety Executive prosecution at Gloucester Crown Court in November 2017, the company was fined 56,000 pounds and a company director received a seven-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. Netting was installed before work restarted.

Contributing factors

The roof was clearly signed as fragile. No safety netting was fitted, although the customer, Kemble Farms, had suggested it. Only two harnesses with inertia reels were available for six workers, and the harness lines were too short, so workers unclipped to move between anchor points. Workers were often on the roof unattached. The injured worker had one week of shadowing as training, no previous experience and no instruction on wearing a harness. The risk assessment assumed work from a mobile elevating platform and no copy was on site.

Lessons learned

1. Treat every roof with skylights or fragile sheeting as a fall hazard and fit collective protection, such as netting or covers, before solar installation starts.
2. Do not rely on harnesses unless there are enough for every worker, the lanyards reach every work position and workers are trained to use them.
3. Novice workers need formal training and close supervision before working at height, not only shadowing.
4. Keep the risk assessment on site and make sure the method of work used matches it.
5. Take the customer's safety concerns seriously and record why any suggested control is not adopted.

More lessons on electrical protection and isolation, worker safety and safe systems of work, from every incident on the register.

Source

gloucestershirelive.co.uk