Industry news portal The Construction Index is reporting that a demolition company has been fined more than £40,000 after a worker was injured on a site in Aberdeen in 2023.
Lawrie (Demolition) Limited – a member of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors – admitted breaching safety regulations when working as principal contractor on the demolition of a vacant warehouse in Aberdeen.
On 25th May 2023, 42-year-old Sylwester Zdunczyk was working with a team on the warehouse roof, removing aluminium over-sheeting. The sheets were being carried to pre-cut holes in the roof from where they were dropped to the ground floor. While helping to carry a sheet backwards near one of the holes, Zdunczyk lost his footing. The weight of the sheet and his own bodyweight caused the unattached barriers to shift, exposing the edge of the opening and creating a gap. He fell approximately six metres to the concrete floor below.
Zdunczyk sustained a fractured pelvis and two broken ribs. He was unable to work for six months after being discharged from hospital and has not fully recovered.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that Lawrie (Demolition) Limited had failed to properly plan, supervise, and carry out the work at height safely. Workers were sent onto the roof without sufficient instruction, training or supervision. The company also failed to put adequate fall protection measures in place.
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