Self-employed scaffolder Sonny Holland, 20, died doing one of Britain’s most dangerous jobs without training, a safety harness or guardrail.Scaffold boss Andrew Geer
He fell 20ft through a hole as he was dragging a ladder beam backwards to pass to workmates. He died the next day in hospital from multiple head injuries.
Three of the four workers on the Andrew Geer Scaffolding Ltd site were trainees but Sonny wasn’t registered on the industry training scheme.
Despite a catalogue of failings, coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe told the jury at Westminster Coroner’s Court the only verdict it could return was one of accidental death.
She summed up: “The Health and Safety Executive expert and inspector identified failures in the following of design, implementation of guard
rails and harness clip on points, the presence of an unguarded hole, the qualifications of the workforce, the lack of training in health and safety matters and the lack of supervision and adequate risk assessment and method statement.”
Sonny’s boss, cage fight promoter Andrew Geer, who has since liquidated the company, was in court where Dr Radcliffe asked him: “Would you accept there was a breakdown between the different people involved in the company and managerial structure as to responsibilities and where they lay?”
Mr Geer replied: “Personally I think that with the amount of time that has lapsed memories are becoming jaded. I’m 100 per cent certain that at the time of the incident the correct measures were in place.”
George Guy, Acting General Secretary of construction union UCATT, said: “This tragic case demonstrates the absurdities of false self-employment.
“How on earth could anyone legitimately be a self-employed apprentice scaffolder.”
The HSE’s investigation into the case is continuing.
One of Britain’s most famous cathedrals is to celebrate its first day without scaffolding for 15 years when a £40 million restoration project draws to a close.The public will get the first entirely “clean” view of St Paul’s tomorrow after the last scaffolding comes down marking the end of a massive renovation project, the first in the cathedral’s history to restore the building both inside and out.
The Sir Christopher Wren masterpiece has served as a focus for national events in its 300-year history with Winston Churchill declaring it should be saved during the Second World War when the building became the target of bombing.
Restoration work included transforming the blackened and damaged west front of the cathedral with more than 150,000 blocks of the cathedral’s white Portland stone cleaned on the outside alone.
Other work included cleaning and repair of the interior, redesign and landscaping of the South Churchyard gardens, restoration of the Grand Organ and adding wheelchair access to the crypt.
The American Memorial Chapel in the cathedral, built in the 1950s to commemorate US forces who died in the Second World War, has also been cleaned and restored.
Cathedral officials said the interior had been “transformed” by state-of-the-art conservation techniques with mosaics, carvings, and sculpture brought to life by light “flooding” the building.
The cathedral, which attracts nearly two million people a year for services, tourism and other events, is celebrating the 300th anniversary of being declared complete by Parliament in 1711.
The Rt Rev Graeme Knowles, Dean of St Paul’s, said: “We’re thrilled that in the year we celebrate the anniversary, we can mark the completion of this extraordinary project.
“The two million who come here each year can witness Wren’s original vision.”
Martin Stancliffe, surveyor to the fabric, who oversaw the project, said: “This great building is now in a sound state and probably looks better than at any time since its completion in 1711.”
A service will be held to celebrate the 300th anniversary on Tuesday (June 21).
To mark the completion of the project, St Paul’s is launching a 300th Anniversary photography competition running from tomorrow with photographers invited to submit their best exterior shots of the building.
More information can be found at http://www.stpauls.co.uk/photocomp.
French-owned Altrad Group has acquired NSG UK, a scaffolding subcontractor based in Deeside, for an undisclosed sum.Altrad has acquired 100% of the shares of NSG UK, where managing director Mike Carr will remain in charge of the UK operation which has 320 employees and a turnover of £20m.
NSG UK provides scaffolding, thermal insulation, industrial cleaning and industrial painting. Altrad specialises in the manufacture and sale of scaffolding, cement mixers and wheelbarrows.
The deal brings the total number of Altrad companies worldwide to 54, the majority in Europe. Montpellier-based Altrad has made three acquisitions in the UK before: of Beaver 84, Belle and BarOmix.
Carr said: “There is a tremendous opportunity for NSG UK to continue its growth with the support of the Altrad Group. We will be in a position to release further details of our future business plans in due course.”
Heineken UK is to put its Strongbow Hard Earned advertising message on hoardings on prominent scaffolding sites.The campaign will run in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The ads will feature a pint of Strongbow and the additional slogan Build Up a Thirst.
Brand manager Lucy Henderson said: “The sites will help to build on the success of our TV campaign, providing us with the reach to create maximum standout and raise awareness of the Strongbow Hard Earned and refreshment message over the summer months.”
A MAN was taken to hospital with serious injuries after falling 25ft from scaffolding.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.
Shaun McBride died after a scaffold he was working on collapsed at an Iron Ore jetty in Dampier Western Australia on Saturday.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.
The body of a 28 year old migrant worker has been recovered from the ocean near Dampier Port after a piece of scaffolding collapsed beneath him.The man, believed to be from Ireland, had been carrying out maintenance work from scaffolding on the East Intercourse Island jetty when part of the scaffolding fell into the water at around noon on Saturday.
Work colleagues immediately raised the alarm after they heard the scaffolding fall and saw a hard hat floating in the water.
Perth-based Inspector David Picton-King said there were no witnesses to the fall.
Initial attempts to locate the man, an employee of Celtic Scaffolding at the Rio Tinto site, were unsuccessful.
Police divers recovered the body just before midnight.
All work has ceased at East Intercourse Island and access to the site has been closed.
A coronial inquiry is underway, and both police and the Mines Department are investigating the cause and circumstances surrounding the accident.
Sam Walsh, Rio Tinto’s Chief executive Iron Ore and Australia, said the fatality was a tragic event.
He said it would be fully investigated by Rio Tinto and in co-operation with the authorities.
“I offer my sincere condolences to family, friends and team mates,” Mr Walsh said.
“We are ensuring that appropriate counselling services are available,” he said.
Scaffolders under siege from dive-bombing seagulls gave their attackers the bird – by drafting in a hawk to scare them off.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.”
A Surrey-based company has been fined after a large section of scaffolding collapsed at a site in Walton-on-Thames.The scene of the incident in Surrey
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Johnson Scaffold Services Ltd, of Chaldon in Surrey, for breaching health and safety laws which led to the incident on the 18 December 2009.
Staines Magistrates’ Court heard how Johnson Scaffold Services Ltd erected sheeted scaffolding around a building in Copenhagen Way, Surrey, to enable a separate contractor to refurbish the roof.
Once the work was completed, the structure was partially removed on 17 December 2009, leaving some of the sheeted scaffolding still standing. During the early hours of the following morning, a 200 foot long, 40 foot high section of the scaffolding was blown to the ground.
The HSE investigation showed the scaffolding was not installed according to the original drawings and had not been adequately tied. It was left in an unsafe condition overnight while being dismantled.
Johnson Scaffold Services Ltd, of Chaldon in Surrey, pleaded guilty of breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It was fined £7,500 and ordered to pay costs of £7,000.
After the hearing, HSE’s inspector Denis Bodger said:
“This was a serious incident that could have resulted in severe injury or worse, it was sheer luck that meant no one was in the way of the scaffolding when it collapsed.
“Scaffolds should be designed by a competent person or built to a recognised standard. At no stage during erection, use or removal should they be left in an unstable state where they could collapse. They should be adequately tied or other effective means taken.
“This should serve as a warning to other companies that HSE will not hesitate to take action against anyone that fails to build safe scaffolding.”
A London property development company has been sentenced after a migrant worker suffered severe head injuries when he fell from scaffolding at a Hackney warehouse.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.”
The public will get the first entirely “clean” view of St Paul’s tomorrow after the last scaffolding comes down marking the end of a massive renovation project, the first in the cathedral’s history to restore the building both inside and out.
The Sir Christopher Wren masterpiece has served as a focus for national events in its 300-year history with Winston Churchill declaring it should be saved during the Second World War when the building became the target of bombing.
Restoration work included transforming the blackened and damaged west front of the cathedral with more than 150,000 blocks of the cathedral’s white Portland stone cleaned on the outside alone.
Other work included cleaning and repair of the interior, redesign and landscaping of the South Churchyard gardens, restoration of the Grand Organ and adding wheelchair access to the crypt.
The American Memorial Chapel in the cathedral, built in the 1950s to commemorate US forces who died in the Second World War, has also been cleaned and restored.
Cathedral officials said the interior had been “transformed” by state-of-the-art conservation techniques with mosaics, carvings, and sculpture brought to life by light “flooding” the building.
The cathedral, which attracts nearly two million people a year for services, tourism and other events, is celebrating the 300th anniversary of being declared complete by Parliament in 1711.
The Rt Rev Graeme Knowles, Dean of St Paul’s, said: “We’re thrilled that in the year we celebrate the anniversary, we can mark the completion of this extraordinary project.
“The two million who come here each year can witness Wren’s original vision.”
Martin Stancliffe, surveyor to the fabric, who oversaw the project, said: “This great building is now in a sound state and probably looks better than at any time since its completion in 1711.”
A service will be held to celebrate the 300th anniversary on Tuesday (June 21).
To mark the completion of the project, St Paul’s is launching a 300th Anniversary photography competition running from tomorrow with photographers invited to submit their best exterior shots of the building.
More information can be found at http://www.stpauls.co.uk/photocomp.
Altrad has acquired 100% of the shares of NSG UK, where managing director Mike Carr will remain in charge of the UK operation which has 320 employees and a turnover of £20m.
NSG UK provides scaffolding, thermal insulation, industrial cleaning and industrial painting. Altrad specialises in the manufacture and sale of scaffolding, cement mixers and wheelbarrows.
The deal brings the total number of Altrad companies worldwide to 54, the majority in Europe. Montpellier-based Altrad has made three acquisitions in the UK before: of Beaver 84, Belle and BarOmix.
Carr said: “There is a tremendous opportunity for NSG UK to continue its growth with the support of the Altrad Group. We will be in a position to release further details of our future business plans in due course.”
The campaign will run in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The ads will feature a pint of Strongbow and the additional slogan Build Up a Thirst.
Brand manager Lucy Henderson said: “The sites will help to build on the success of our TV campaign, providing us with the reach to create maximum standout and raise awareness of the Strongbow Hard Earned and refreshment message over the summer months.”
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.
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.”