As I said in a previous post on this subject, the only time a prosecution may happen is if something bad has already happened.
Though I am stunned at the severity of the fine to an individual who falls off a ladder
Gaza, Your outline of details is very sketchy, could you not have posted a link to where you picked up that info?
It would be interesting to read the full details of such a court case.
Lets face it, to be off work with say a busted hip could well be enough to wipe out your business, then to be hit with £5,500 worth of fines and costs on top would bankrupt many.
It never fails to amaze me how I could go out and break into, say, a school, cause many thousands of pounds worth of criminal damage, rob the place and when caught get away with a fine of a couple of hundred quid and a couple of weeks of community service.
Fall off a ladder and your life is destroyed.
All accidents are avoidable......until you factor in the human element
To be punished so severely for what may have been a moments inattention seems incredibly harsh.
What would happen if you slipped off the bottom rung of a ladder because your foot was slippery, perhaps you stood in some dog poo without realising it, you step on the ladder, your foot slips and you break your ankle, then as you fall you hit your head and fracture your skull (don't know about the dog poo bit but I know a carpenter who that happened to)
He could have been accused of complacency, would he too be punished with crippling fines I wonder??
Or perhaps his footwear was unsuitable for the job.
On a wet day, how many of you guys have had your foot slip off a rung when halfway up a ladder?
I have had that happen on more than one occasion. I have always had 2 hands on the ladder, but if you are climbing down the ladder, the slip occurs just as you are putting your full weight on the foot that is going to slip, your other leg is relaxing.
Therefore when you do slip, by the time the other leg, assisted by your hands gripping the ladder recover you, you will have gone down past 90 degrees on the leg that has to support you.
This incident is one I always find particularly scary, if you are completely unlucky you might lose your grip on the ladder, your one leg will fall through the rungs of the ladder and you will fall backwards, I absolutely shudder to think of the damage you will cause yourself, upside down, halfway up a ladder, your leg snapped in half and your body supported and trapped in place by that broken leg.
Can you imagine being in that situation around the back of a customers house? And no one in to hear your screams of agony.
Sod that for a game of soldiers
As I got older, and having a tiny slip much like I just described (but recovering quite safely from) I would often envisage the consequencies should it go the other way, and how easily it could happen.
Regardless of H & S, you can adhere strictly to all guidelines and still have an accident such as described above.
Just a moments inattention and you could be stuck halfway up a ladder, upside down and suspended by a broken leg and utterly unable to help yourself and praying that someone will here your screams of agony...
Whenever I had those tiny slips, little accidents where nothing happened, the ladder slips out at the bottom, perhaps it slips an inch or two off a patio slab and catches on something, no harm done except your heart is in your mouth, but I always looked at what
could have happened.
Wsn't H & S regs that got me to go over to WFP, it was the thought of the consequencies of what could happen to me should an accident happen, that instead of turning into nothing more than a minor heart thumping moment, should go wrong and I'd get horribly injured.
And with the thought that now I could also be prosecuted to within an inch of my fiscal life, I'm bloody glad I have done so
Hoping to play cricket this afternoon, if it stays dry enough....what if I top edge a ball....it could go into my face....I could lose my teeth....shatter my cheekbone....I might misjudge a beamer...what if it hits me in the throat...What if I am the one bowling and I hit someone in the face....
Wonder when H & S will stop us playing with a hard ball?
Have a good weekend Y'all
Regards,
Ian