The HSE continues to report on cases where a complete lack of edge protection was seen to be putting roofers at risk – and in the latest incident, the culprit had put his two sons in danger through a lack of such safety precautions.
It relates to work carried out in Wednesfield in February 2013, when a fragile pitched asbestos cement roof was being overclad with metal sheets.
Two workers were spotted on the roof with no edge protection or fall prevention measures; they had reached the roof by extending a scissor lift to its maximum height, and then clambering on to its own guardrails in order to get the rest of the way up.
At a height of up to eight metres above ground level, and working on a pitched roof surface with no edge protection, any fall could have been fatal – and it was their own father who had put them at risk.
HSE inspector Gareth Langston said the roofer “should have taken suitable measures to prevent falls but instead allowed his sons to be put at risk”.
And the client didn’t escape blame either, with Mr Langston adding that they shared a responsibility to “have ensured the roof work was properly planned, appropriately supervised and, above all, safe”.