Get a Little Extra - Health and Safety Portal - A free online newspaper published by Tennyson Suite

No.30, Scaffold Collapse Kills Grandfather., last updated on: 05/04/2010

Scaffold Collapse Kills Grandfather and Seriously Injures his Son.

A 49 year old grandfather dies after landing in amidst the twisted scaffolding that collapsed at a major Hotel.
The scaffolding fell away from the building whilst 3 operatives were working on the temporary working platform re-cladding the external envelope of the property. 2 men fell 30 metres and the electrician working on the same elevation fell 10 metres.

A catalogue of errors contributed to the accident; these included:
• The failure of the scaffolding company to properly design the temporary structure; the complexity and size of the scaffolding requiring a proper structural calculation and design.
• The failure of the Principal Contractor to ensure its design, its failure to inspect the scaffolding every seven days, as a minimum, (the scaffolding was not inspected for more than two months) and the failure to ensure that there was a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for loading out the materials, (the scaffolding should have only been loaded with materials at 200kgs per square metre, but was overloaded by more than 10 times that amount).
• The failure of the contractor doing the work of carrying out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and method statement.
The Principal Contractor was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay £42,000 costs.
The Managing Director of the Scaffolding Company fled to Spain immediately after the accident; a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

This case has highlighted the importance of employing competent contractors to plan, manage and monitor the works, or suffer the consequences.

Tennyson Suite Limited and ARCA are pooling training professionals to provide the combined course of an overview of CDM 2007 and Asbestos Awareness on Thursday, 22nd April 2010 at Newhaven Enterprise Centre, Denton Island, Newhaven in East Sussex BN9 9BA.
The goal is to bring to the attention of the attendees, the nature of the regulations and the roles to be played by all of the interested parties.
In order to achieve CHAS accreditation, employers must provide evidence that suitable and sufficient training has been provided to their employees.
Lunch, Tea & Coffee Refreshments are provided.
Cost for One Day - Two Course Event: £90 + VAT per person
Certificates are issued to delegates who have attended.
To book, log on to:
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Complete your details in full and request a place at the seminar. We shall send you a booking form by return together with a pro-forma invoice for your place on the course.
(To keep training costs low, we accept payment by cheque or bank payment only)
Please note: No delegates can be admitted to the event unless payment is received in advance - your attention is drawn to the conditions of booking on the booking form.
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