One of the UK’s largest house builders has received a substantial fine for safety failings, after a bricklayer fell and badly injured himself on a construction site.
Daniel Kersey, from Royal Wootton Bassett, fractured vertebrae and sustained deep cuts and bruising in the incident at the Mitford Fields development in Reading in August 2013.
The 64-year-old was working on a platform over a stairwell that was loaded with almost 70 concrete blocks. When the platform gave way, the blocks crashed to the floor along with Mr Kersey.
Newcastle-based Bellway Homes Ltd was sentenced last week after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified concerns with the management of temporary works at the site.
The firm was fined a total of £35,000 and ordered to pay a further £14,520 in costs after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to two separate breaches of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.
Reading Crown Court heard that Mr Kersey was working on the last of 64 Bellway properties at Mitford Fields, and that the platform and methods used were consistent with others across the new build development.
However, an investigation established that the platform wasn’t built to an approved design or checked for stability prior to being used. It was structurally unsound and the weight of the blocks combined with Mr Kersey was too much, causing it to fail.
The bricklayer was unable to work for several weeks as a result of his injuries and has been left with regular back pains. He is also unable to lift heavy weights since the fall.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Dominic Goacher said: “Bellway Homes is the fourth largest house builder in the UK and it would be expected the company has enough knowledge and experience to have been able to put proper controls in place.
“Mr Kersey was left in considerable pain as a result of the fall, but could easily have been killed, either by the impact or the concrete blocks as they rained down around him.”