Safety Blunder Led To Tyne and Wear Schoolboy's Death (1 Viewer)

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A construction firm was fined £75,000 after a safety blunder led to the death of a schoolboy who plunged to his death from scaffolding.

Adam Tiffin was just seven when he crashed 26ft to the ground after scaling scaffolding near his home in Roche Court, Washington, Tyne and Wear, in April 2006.

Lovell Partnerships Limited had been contracted to renovate a series of flats near the seven-year-old’s home in Glebe, Washington.

The simple job was due to be quickly completed and the scaffolding taken down that same day – a task which would have taken only an hour.

But instead it stayed up for another 12 days when the job was unexpectedly postponed, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The scaffold became a daily attraction for local youngsters who climbed up and even made a play den with cushions and a chair on the roof.

And tragedy finally struck when Adam plunged 26ft to his death in April, 2006.

“The company put up a dangerous structure like this and effectively left it unattended for 11 days,” said Nigel Lawrence, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive. “The job should have been completed and the scaffold removed.

“The real issue in this case is it should never have been allowed to stay up 11 days and by virtue of that people were exposed to risk – particularly children.”

Lovell Partnerships admitted a health and safety breach by failing to ensure so far as reasonably practicable that people not in their employment were not exposed to risks.

They accepted the one-off job, which an earlier inquest was told would have taken only 30 minutes, could have been “timetabled better”.

David Travers, defending, said the company had been affected by Adam’s death.

“The incident that led to this prosecution is tragic, centrally and most tragically for the young child’s family, but it is an incident that has been deeply felt within the company, a company with no previous convictions,” Mr Travers told the court.

“The work intended to be carried out on the flue was an out-of-sequence, one-off job which could have been timetabled better. This scaffold did not need to be in place for 11 days.”

Judge Esmond Faulks said he accepted Lovell Partnerships had an otherwise excellent safety record.

But he added: “It has long been recognised that scaffolding can be an allurement to children. The real gravity of the case here is the company did not have the scaffolding removed – which I’m told would probably have taken no more than one hour – and instead allowed it to be left in place for a further 12 days in an area where there were children.

“The aggravating feature is that the failure led to a death.”

Lovell Partnerships will also meet the prosecution costs of £46,109.

Source: Journal Live
 
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