Company prosecuted for failing to protect their workers after a painter was injured in a fall - 25th January 2010

An Essex company has been ordered to pay over £10,000 after a man suffered injury at work in a fall from height while working on an aircraft.

The mans accident at work dates from October 2007 when Robert Lupton, a painter, was working at Air Livery Plc, based at Southend Airport.

He was working with another man, wrapping a plane’s wings in sheeting to protect it from paint stripper when he stepped onto the wing flap and fell five metres.

Mr Lupton broke both elbows and badly damaged ligaments in his fall from height; he has been on disability benefit and unable to work since.

At Bristol Magistrates Court the company pleaded guilty to breaches of the Work at Heights Regulations 2005 and was fined £2,400 and ordered to pay £9,162 in costs.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation into the accident found that it was normal practice for workers to be on the wings without protection and they did not have adequate training for working at height.

HSE Inspector Christine Haberfield said: “Air Livery should have taken the steps necessary to protect its workers by putting fall protection in place and checking to ensure that workers were using it.

“Everything may have appeared OK on paper but the practice on the ground encouraged painters to go ahead of themselves and without adequate protection. In this respect this was an accident waiting to happen – which it did of course, to Mr Lupton.”

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