ACR-News

Air conditioning firm Select Air Services has been fined £10,000 by the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) after an apprentice engineer fell three metres through a fragile plasterboard ceiling and broke his arm.
The 20-year-old apprentice was installing an air conditioning system in the loft space above an office at Llaneurgain House in Northop when the accident happened on 14 March 2012. As a result he was off work for 10 weeks.

An investigation by the HSE found that Select Air Services had failed to put adequate safety measures in place. Mold Magistrates' Court heard the company had not provided enough crawling boards, which meant employees had to step from joist to joist to carry out the work. As a result, there was nothing to prevent the young worker from falling through the fragile plasterboard when he lost his footing.

The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £6,600 after pleading guilty to a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Chris Wilcox said: 'The risks associated with falling through a ceiling are something most of us would recognise from our own lofts at home, yet Select Air Services Limited failed to implement basic safety measures to minimise the risk of falls.

'The workers were installing the air conditioning system above a fragile plasterboard ceiling but their employer neglected to plan the work properly and provide simple safeguards such as crawling boards or safety decking that could have prevented a fall.'