School fined over loft fall.
An independent school near Huntingdon has been prosecuted after a teenager was injured when she fell from a loft space to the swimming pool changing rooms below.
Pool attendant a 19 year old girl, and the swimming pool manager were retrieving paperwork stored in a loft above the changing rooms.
To reach the documents she walked along a beam of the unboarded loft but lost her footing. She fell two and a half metres on to the tiled floor below narrowly missing a benched area.
She suffered a fractured wrist in the fall.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuting told the Court today that School had not carried out a risk assessment for entering the loft and failed to ensure that its staff did not work on or near a fragile surface.
After the hearing, HSE Inspector said:
"The outcome of this incident could have been very different. Falling from height, particularly onto such a hard surface often results in severe injuries or even death. It is an employer's duty to ensure the safety of all staff and anyone working at height needs to be protected.
"In this case, the documents could have been stored somewhere easier to reach and if a simple risk assessment had been carried out, this would have been identified. I urge any organisation to consider where they store items including paperwork and how safe it is for an employee to access."
The School pleaded guilty and was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,276.40.
Updated on 9/20/2011