A loft conversion company has been fined for safety failings after an employee was injured in a dramatic scaffold collapse outside a property in North London.
The scaffold buckled, tipped towards the home it was being used to serve and bent in on itself that sent the builder and an array of materials crashing six metres to the ground below.
Thomas Pastura, 24, broke two ribs in the fall at the property in Danvers Road, Hornsey, on 4 October 2013, but was fortunate not to have been more seriously injured or even killed.
His employer, Acton-based Lofty Creations UK Ltd, was prosecuted yesterday (11 March) by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation identified clear failings with the design of the scaffold.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard it was being used to provide access to the roof of a traditional two-storey property where a loft conversion was underway, and had been built to reach across a ground level bay window.
An investigation by the HSE established that the weight of the materials on the structure at the time of collapse was between 3-3.5 tonnes – the equivalent of a transit van. This was far greater than it could safely handle and it gave way as it was simply unable to bear the load.
Magistrates were told that, as a company routinely engaged with work at height, Lofty Creations should have known the property required a scaffold built to an approved design by a specialist structural engineer.
Lofty Creations UK Ltd, of Warple Way, Acton, NW3, was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay a further £1,019 in costs after pleading guilty to a single breach of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.
After the hearing HSE Inspector Simon Hester said:
“The collapse would not have occurred had the scaffold been designed by a competent specialist to carry loads of 3.5 tonnes with an overhanging cantilever to accommodate the bay window.
“That didn’t happen and Mr Pastura suffered a painful injury as a result – although he is perhaps fortunate not to have come off a lot worse.
“Lofty Creations failed to adequately plan and design the scaffold that collapsed; failed to manage the storage of heavy materials; and ultimately failed to protect its workforce.”
Mark Carrier
Naughty that piers
Hahaha don’t be daft Bobby Clark you know I only do 6×5 towers lol
Dave Hughes did u put that up mate ha ha
Joe Pickering
Alan Swales show this to mike!!!!
Trevor Dawson you put this up lol
Couple of pinch ties in the reveals it would have been fine U0001f61c
Wow
Damian Bowman Adam Smallridge
Haha yea one of mine and trevs special
I remember when i was just a boy
Dariusz Funek Grzegorz Funek
This wouldn’t of happened with the amount of gear you put in a job Jamie Sadler
Shane Hale
Bill Palmer u bein let loose again lol
All trades do this. Ask for normal front and then load it like a heavy lift dead shore lol they will learn. Building Companies don’t like paying for a designed scaffold.
Quality! Makes a change to bricky’s overloading it though U0001f44d
What firm scaffolded it
Lewis Cowham you put this up
Best young scaffolder in bristol
WOW
Yep I thought I seen it before lol
Craig Norley big ry putting jobs up again U0001f612
Curtis J Simcox wa the fuk u sayn U0001f602 freethy banged this job
No nothing but quality on BKM mate. Gold cards all round with boat loads of experience
He did say lean it in
Mark Mackenzie bkm special that one
Dan Stephenson that was one of yours wasn’t it kid
Liam Wadrop been on the job again
Ben Perry you’ve been up 80ft again lol. Patrick Hassett Ricky Rogers Ben Mills Jack Joblin
Steve murray Iose Potasi did justin build this haha
Matty Walsh Rich Barlow check this out haha
Chute still looks ok tho
Friday special
Alway tube and fitting job
is that 1 of yours Gary Christie
That’s what happens when you get thick cu-ts on the scaffold, over loading lifts
I know leaning the standards in a little is good, but this is a bit ott!! U0001f603
They’re lucky that more people weren’t injured!!
Perry Woof Woof Rolls Leigh Russell Nick Vincent Kieran Joe Longbodd Reed
That ay wot we done last week is it Philip Jewkes lmao