Three firms fined over 17-year-old's death

Prosecutions and Claims |
12.02.2008

Three firms and a manager have been fined a total of £217,500 at Manchester Crown Court over the death of 17-year-old trainee scaffolder Steven Burke.

Burke died in January 2004 after falling 18 metres from an unsafe scaffold. He had not been using a harness even though his employer, 3D Scaffolding, had been served with two Prohibition Notices relating to the use of harnesses in the two weeks preceding the accident.

Burke had been working as part of a gang contructing a birdcage scaffold inside a 20-metre-high sewage tank at Davyhulme Wastewater Treatment Works in Manchester. The gang was working under the control of contracts manager David Swindell. 3D had been contracted to provide scaffolding by RAM Services, and the principal contractor for the project was Mowlem Group.

Inspector Nick Rigby, who led the HSE investigation, told HSP that the scaffolding job was a complex one in a confined space. The gang should have included qualified scaffolders, but 3D sent two trainee scaffolders and two labourers to do the job. Intermediate transoms and guard-rails to protect the workers during construction of the scaffold were omitted, and the men were given no training on how to use or inspect harnesses.

On the day of the accident Burke was wearing a harness but had his coat fastened over it. He fell as he was climbing to retrieve some boards from the roof of the tank.

David Swindell - an advanced scaffolder - had set the gang up and had entered the tank nearly every day, "so there was no way he could not have known how they were working," said Rigby.

RAM Services had requested a method statement from 3D for the work but the person who produced it was not familiar with the scaffolding standard SG4 and the statement was deficient.

RAM failed to properly supervise 3D's work or inspect any of the scaffolding to make sure it was safe for RAM employees to use. Mowlem, as principal contractor, also failed in its duty to monitor subcontractors.

"It was an absolute catalogue of disasters," said Rigby. "They all had an opportunity to do something - they all had responsibility to look after the safety of the scaffolders."

3D admitted failing to ensure the safety of employees contrary to Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSW Act) and on 8 February was fined £60,000 with £20,000 costs.

Swindell denied but was found guilty of breaching Section 7 of the HSW Act for failing to take reasonable care of the safety of those affected by his work, and was fined £7500 plus £15,000 costs.

Mowlem admitted failing to ensure the safety of non-employees contrary to Section 3(1) of the HSW Act and was fined £75,000 plus £20,000 costs.

RAM Services admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the HSW Act and additionally pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 29 of the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations for failing to properly inspect scaffolding. RAM was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £70,000 costs.

Further information about the SG4 standard is available from the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation.