Fall At Work In Scotland

A call to do more to protect construction workers from serious injury has been issued by a leading Scottish lawyer.

This comes after a 17-year-old apprentice from Aberdeenshire suffered a nine-foot fall onto a concrete floor, from the first floor of a new-build home, through an unguarded stairwell, injuring both his legs and head.

The Ellon-based company, Scotia Homes, overseeing the construction was fined £4,000 for breaching the Work at Height Regulations 2005, following a Health and Safety Executive investigation.

Elaine Russell, partner at the Glasgow office of national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, said: “Unfortunately, the construction industry is one sector in which a worker is most likely to lose his life in a work-related accident, and falls from heights remain one of the major sources of serious and fatal injuries.

“Regrettably at Irwin Mitchell we often deal with similar cases where an individual’s life has been devastated in an easily preventable accident. Employers need to ensure that the correct precautions are taken and health and safety guidelines followed in order to avoid accidents like this happening in the future.”

During the period 2008/09 10 people died and 1,423 were injured in Scotland while working in the construction industry.