The accident happened in Bedworth at 11.50am yesterday, at the back of a property in Saunders Avenue.
The man, believed to be in his 50s, is thought to have also hit a garden wall during his fall of about 25ft.
Two ambulances and a senior paramedic officer were sent to the scene and he was taken to the University Hospital in Walsgrave with serious chest, shoulder and spinal injuries.
The news comes after another incident in which a Whitefriars worker was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after falling 30ft from a ladder in the Tile Hill area of Coventry on Monday.
U.K. Edition
The man, Shaun McBride, 28, was employed by Celtic Scaffolding to carrying out maintenance work on the East Intercourse Island jetty near Dampier. No one saw the accident, colleagues heard the scaffold give way and fall in to the sea, leaving just a hard hat floating on the water. His body was recovered later that day.
All operations at the Rio Tinto Iron owned facility was stopped while an investigation was carried out by the police and Mines department along with a Rio Tinto investigation team.
Sam Walsh, Rio Tinto’s chief executive Iron Ore and Australia, said: “I offer my sincere condolences to family, friends and team mates. We are ensuring that appropriate counselling services are available.
“We seek to achieve a zero harm workplace across our operations, and this tragedy is a terrible reminder that we can never be too careful, that we can never place too high a priority on ensuring a safe workplace.”
“Rio Tinto has not experienced a fatality at its Pilbara operations since August 2003, but this incident highlights the fact that there is never any room for complacency in the effort to ensure a completely safe workplace.”
McBride had only arrived back in the country from Ireland six weeks ago, after gaining his four year work permit, he comes from Burtonport, Co Donegal.
A huge flock of adult gulls, which have wingspans of up to 40 inches, swooped on scaffolders working more than 80ft up at Greenock’s Municipal Buildings yesterday.
The men – all employees of a firm called Falcon Scaffolding – had to shield themselves from the aerial onslaught before calling in specialist help.
A Harris Hawk called Clyde and his handler then raced to the rescue from their base in Livingston, West Lothian.
Shaken scaffolder Kenny Crighton told the Tele: “It was a pretty crazy situation – the gulls were actually dive-bombing us and whacking us with their feet and squawking like mad.
“It was like something out of the Hitchcock movie The Birds.
“It was relentless and pretty scary too, because we were more than 80 feet up.
“They were all full-size adult seagulls as well, so it’s not as if we were being attacked by anything small.
“We all wear harnesses, which is just as well because the gulls were trying to knock us off balance.
“But we were removing steel beams so it was very obviously a dangerous situation.
“Through the council we managed to enlist the services of a hawk and things calmed down quite quickly after that.
“Apparently it’s the gulls’ nesting season right now and because they have chicks they’re trying to protect they are ultra-aggressive to anyone who comes near.”
Clyde the hawk’s handler, Steven Loran, who works for Wishaw-based Hawkman Services, said it was all in a day’s work for him and his trusty bird of prey.
But he admitted he was taken aback with the sight they were confronted with when he first arrived on the scene.
Steven said: “They were swarming round in a circle like vultures. The seagulls were just going daft.
“But the hawk has certainly done his job in dispersing them. The gulls just don’t like the fact there is a bird of prey around.”
Steven told how he can let Clyde fly around for a while, but he kept him on his glove for this job.
The giant flock almost immediately split up with individual birds landing on nearby rooftops and keeping their distance with Clyde standing guard over the scene.
Steven said: “We’re constantly working on these kind of jobs all the time because seagulls are such a problem at places such as retail parks and bus depots.
“We can be hawking for up to 12 hours a day at this time of the year.
“The gulls most certainly can cause injury to the people they attack and it becomes a real health and safety issue.
“And during the nesting season they become very aggressive towards people.”
An Inverclyde Council spokesman said: “Attacks by gulls were threatening the safety of contractors working at height on the façade of the Municipal Buildings.
“Steps were therefore taken to move nests from the working area in accordance with RSPB guidelines.”
The 46-year-old fell more than five metres from an incomplete tower scaffold – being used to remove floor beams from two levels of a warehouse on Homerton High Street, Hackney, on 13 October 2009.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the client Nabiganj Investment Company Limited who employed the man as a principal contractor, failed to implement a number of measures that could have prevented the incident.
HSE inspectors found asbestos in debris from the demolition work and discovered that no asbestos survey had been conducted prior to work starting.
City of London Magistrates heard at least six Chinese migrant workers who spoke very little English had been demolishing floors and moving debris around, potentially exposing themselves to asbestos fibres. The worker who fell from the scaffold suffered life-threatening injuries to his head, pelvis and spine and can now only walk with difficulty.
Nabiganj Investment Company Limited of Alexandra Park Road, London pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4 (1) (a), Regulation 10, Regulation 14(1) and Regulation 16(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. The company was fined £37,500 and ordered to pay costs of £5,459.90.
The court heard that the firm has had previous enforcement action imposed on it relating to other sites, including two Improvement Notices for failure to comply with client duties under Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM) and two Prohibition Notices for work at height.
Speaking after the sentence, HSE Inspector Eileen Gascoigne said:
“A vulnerable worker was left with devastating injuries as a result of the consistently poor attitude to safety this company has displayed.
“This is an experienced property development firm, it has had previous enforcement action taken against it by the HSE relating to similar issues during construction work. Once again in avoiding its responsibilities, it has put the safety and health of at least six vulnerable workers at unnecessary risk.”
Produced specifically for Clients, Site/Project Managers, Agents, Surveyors, CDM Coordinators, Estimators, Planners and Designers the document provides detailed industry requirements on the current best practice for scaffolding contractors prior to working on site and what expectations are required once work has commenced. This document would also be suitable as a protocol template for all scaffolding works and could be used to accompany any Tender or Pre-Qualification document.
The risk of an accident or injury to either operatives or the general public can be greatly reduced by factually knowing what to demand from your scaffolding contractor at every stage of the process.
Gerry Cooper, NASC President states:
John Robertson attended a three-hour hearing at Sunderland County Court.
Mr Robertson, 44, of York Avenue, Jarrow, said: “I’m gutted about being declared bankrupt after being in business for 15 years.
“It was horrendous to appear before a bankruptcy court, but given the size of my debts, I felt I had no other choice.
“I put myself forward voluntarily for bankruptcy because I have outstanding debts of around £1.3m, involving the Inland Revenue, Barclays Bank and mortgages.”
Mr Robertson is also due to appear at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court this week on a charge of criminal damage.
He is accused of smashing his 22ft truck into Strathmore House, the headquarters of South Tyneside Homes, at Jarrow’s Viking Industrial Estate on March 20.
It is claimed he caused damage totalling almost £160,000.
Untily recently, Mr Robertson employed 20 staff at Robertson Scaffolding at Wagonway Industrial Estate, Hebburn.
But he later became embroiled in a contractual dispute with South Tyneside Homes.
His business has now been dissolved.
He added: “I’m used to being my own boss and working 18 hours a day, so to be declared bankrupt and have no business is really hard.”
But despite his problems, Mr Robertson said he is “heartened” by support from friends and business associates in the community.
And after receiving 767 votes after standing as an Independent candidate for the Primrose ward in Jarrow in the recent local elections, Mr Robertson revealed he plans to continue pressing for a seat on South Tyneside Council.
The Deeside-based company has won five contracts, including a £100,000 deal to work on Merepark’s Central Village development in Liverpool city centre, and a £139,000 contract for Wates Construction at Liverpool John Moores University’s £37m Mount Pleasant Campus Redevelopment.
Six NSG UK staff are now working on the Merepark project, erecting scaffolding for enabling works for the future refurbishment and redevelopment of the famous Lewis’s building.
The firm is also providing scaffolding for the new six-floor LJMU building, which will be home to the Faculty for Business and Law, the Liverpool Screen School and the University’s new Professional Centre.
NSG UK has also been awarded two contracts to work on social housing stock in Sefton and Liverpool, erecting scaffolding for refurbishment and renovation projects.