Personal Injury
Workplace Falls From Height
The Health & Safety Executive identified falls from height as the single biggest cause of death and major injury in the workplace. However, all of these deaths and injuries are preventable!
Working at altitude can be extremely dangerous and there is a specific set of statutory regulations dealing with this type of work - The Work at Height Regulations 2005 (as amended by the Work at Height (Amendment) Regulations 2007.) These regulations apply if work involves the risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury.
Every employer has an overriding duty to do all that is reasonably practicable to prevent anyone from falling. They must:
- Avoid this type of work where they can;
- Use equipment or other methods to prevent falls where they cannot avoid working at height;
- Where they cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use special equipment or other measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall should one occur.
To comply with these obligations, every employer must ensure:
- All work is properly planned and organised;
- It takes account of weather conditions that could endanger health and safety;
- All employees must be properly trained and competent;
- The place where the work is done must be safe;
- Equipment must be appropriately inspected;
- The risks from fragile surfaces must be properly controlled;
- The danger from falling objects must be properly controlled
If you have been injured from a fall at height, or by a falling object, you should be able to claim compensation for your injury and all associated financial losses including loss of earnings, private medical treatment, care provided by friends or relatives.
Contact our team today on 0800 083 0815.