The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning of the risks of working at height, after an Essex worker fell from a ladder and suffered severe injuries, including a broken neck.

Lakeside Container Services Ltd, of London Road, Grays, Essex was fined £13,400 with £3,380 costs, at Chelmsford Magistrates Court today (Sep 22). The company pleaded guilty to breaching section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and regulation 6(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.

HSE prosecuted the company over an incident on 21 September 2007. An employee from Grays fell 7.5m off a ladder when it slipped while balanced on shipping containers, breaking his neck in two places, his skull and his leg in two places. As a result of the incident the worker needed six months off work and had to change his role at the company on his return.

The employee had used a ladder to climb the shipping containers after two containers were lifted at once, and the top container needed to be secured as it moved during the lift. An investigation by the HSE revealed that the process of moving two containers at once was unsafe and there was a lack of planning and risk assessment for securing the containers once they had moved in transit.

HSE Inspector, David King said:

Every week one person in Great Britain dies due to a slip, trip or fall in the workplace, and in the East last year they accounted for nearly a third of all injuries.

What the figures don’t reflect is the extent to which such an incident can affect individual workers and their families. It can lead to major injuries and a lifetime of disability, or extended time off work.

In this case the employee has lasting physical injuries which have affected his capabilities at work and has also impacted on his leisure time - he was a keen motorbiking enthusiast prior to the incident but has since had to sell his bike.

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees." The maximum penalty in a Magistrate's Court for this offence is £20,000.Regulation 6(1)(b)(ii) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, states: "Every employer shall ensure that lifting equipment is positioned or installed in such a way as to reduce as low as reasonably practicable the risk from a load falling freely." The maximum penalty in the Magistrate’s Court for this offence is £5000.More information on safe working at height is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/index.htm