Fines for health and safety breach of construction regulations
John Martin Riva has been fined for his work on a chimney. This led to safety and health breaches. He has been fined £15,000 after breaking Sections 33 and 3 (1) of the safety and health act. Riva was contracted for work on a property in Gifford from August 2009 to October 2009. He was asked to rebuild a chimney; however, he did not get all of the debris and masonry materials out of the chimney. Instead, he left the debris in there creating a block so that when a fire was lit it created carbon monoxide and smoke into the home. Fumes built up and the home occupants were exposed to the poisonous gas. Unfortunately, the 60-year-old Ceridwen Ross who was one of the exposed died.
It was a clear health and safety breach on the part of the worker. He did not properly carry out the work or perform checks to ensure no health and safety issues were left behind. This is why the fine, though seemingly large, is rather small in comparison to the death the family suffered. It was certainly a preventable incident. Had Riva checked behind his workers or completed the work on his own then the issues would not have arisen. He is lucky only one person died rather than all three in this tragedy.
