Prosecution of Window Factory follows Health and Safety Breach
A manufacturer of wooden doors and windows is fined due to health and safety breaches at the work place. A worker fell to his death at the age of 55 due to the safety breaches at work. The Polish national was at the factory as an employee for ten days before falling to his death. He and his son were working to move a large board off a pile stacked against a wall in the factory.
One employee would stand at the front of the stack in order to take the weight of the unwanted boards. The other worker would be pulling out the board they wanted. This was the system in effect at the factory for all workers. The troubling factor was that the panels were too heavy for Mr. Rokita to hold up. They toppled over and crushed him. He suffered from a fatal head wound.
The HSE conducting health and safety audits stated it was not a safe system to have in place. The company should have a safe procedure for the removal of boards needed for projects. The racking system with boards in a horizontal and not vertical position would definitely have helped. Any other system could have been used to avoid injury from the wood. It was not a matter of proper health and safety training, but a matter of having proper storage to ensure an accident would not occur. This error now has the company up on fines.
