Scaffold and Scaffolding Injury Claims

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Case study: Scaffolding Injury Claim

I previously acted for a client living in London, who suffered injuries after falling from scaffolding in an accident at work.

The accident happened at a building site in Tottenham High Road, London. At the site some 3-storey houses were being built. Only the brickwork and timberwork were in place.

My client was from Albania. At the time he had been living in Britain for about a year.

When he first started working on site, my client received an induction course. This covered topics such as obeying safety notices and reporting anything dangerous.

The accident took place at about 8 a.m. My client was walking along the scaffolding on the second floor, a distance of roughly 6 m above the ground.

The scaffolding boards on which my client was walking were roughly 1.5 m long by 9 inches wide. The walkway comprised scaffolding board laid together lengthwise.

Without warning, one of the two middle scaffolding boards gave way beneath him. The board turned out to be rotten. This was not apparent beforehand.

As a result my client fell through the walkway and down one storey. He ended up lying on the scaffolding boards erected on the floor below. He fell a vertical distance of roughly 2 m.

Luckily the scaffolding boards on the floor below onto which he fell were in better condition. Had these given way as well, then my client would probably have been killed.

As a result of the incident, my client suffered soft tissue injuries. He was absent from work for 6 weeks.

Following the accident, a proper inspection of the scaffolding took place. This was found to be defective and it was removed.

A personal injury claim was made against the employers, on the basis of negligence and breach of statutory duty. Their insurers swiftly conceded liability.

Sensible negotiations took place, and settlement was achieved within just over a year.

Comments about scaffold and scaffolding injury claims generally

This case illustrates several factors that often arise in accidents on building sites, and injuries involving scaffolding in particular:

• Building sites in the UK are heavily regulated, and there is a good deal of legislation that can be brought into play when making a claim of this type
• Photographic evidence is very important. In this case the client acted swiftly in obtaining photographs, before the evidence could be removed
• Although I do not have any statistics, the impression is that foreign workers on building sites in London seem to be disproportionately at risk, when compared to British workers

By all means contact me if you would like to discuss making a claim for compensation following injuries caused by defective scaffolding at work. I look forward to hearing from you.

Boris Kremer - personal injury solicitor, Sovereign House, Solent Way, Gosport, Hampshire UK. Tel: 0845 021 2222.

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handling personal injury claims as a result of injuries from accidents at work generally