Firm fined after fall from height leaves builder paralysed
Posted: Wednesday, November 6th, 2024
A Mansfield-based construction company has been fined £40,000 after a builder was left paralysed from the chest down after falling through a ceiling at a house renovation in Derbyshire, Construction Management reported. Andrew Clifford, 51, had been installing first-floor joists alone while constructing a house on Main Road in Dronfield. He carried out the work on behalf of Paul Freeman Ltd, a company he had worked with for around 20 years. On the morning of 31 October 2022, Clifford slipped and fell from the first floor to the ground below and was left unable to move. He remained lying face down on the floor for around six hours before a delivery driver found him. He judged the time by hearing hourly news bulletins on his radio. Clifford spent nearly five months in hospital, with the injuries to his spinal cord so severe they left him paralysed from the chest down, with only limited movement in his hands and arms. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Paul Freeman Ltd failed to ensure that work at height had been properly planned and that no measures had been implemented to prevent falls during the construction of the first floor. Clifford had not been provided with suitable instructions on how to carry out the work and was, therefore, left to work this out on his own. Working at height remains one of the leading causes of death in the construction industry, according to HSE data.
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