An accident that would have been a comical parody of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, but for the terrible outcome, caused dreadful injuries to an operative working at height on a scaffold tower.

Charles Howie was seriously injured when an inadequately supported refrigerator unit fell on to a scaffolding tower, causing him to fall 2.6 metres to the ground.
 Aberdeen-based refrigeration services company Spark’s Mechanical Services Ltd was contracted to remove two ceiling-mounted refrigeration units at Iceberg Ltd’s fish processing. He was standing on a scaffolding tower removing one of the units by undoing the bolts that held it in place. He removed four of the eight bolts and was waiting for a forklift truck to arrive to hold the unit so he could remove the remaining bolts without the unit falling. But one of the bolts fractured, and the unit fell and struck the scaffold, catapulting Mr Howie off the structure. He fell to the ground and suffered a collapsed lung and five fractured ribs. He was unable to return to work for five months.

The HSE visited the site on the day of the incident and found that the company had failed to properly plan the work and didn’t ensure that the unit was adequately supported when the bolts were being removed. The company was issued with a Prohibition Notice, which ordered it not to remove the other unit until a safe system of work was put in place.

HSE inspector John Radcliffe said: “The company’s method of carrying out this type of work appeared to have evolved from custom and practice devised by employees, rather than what was actually safe. “A safe system of work might have included the use of a forklift truck as a support, but it needed to have been underneath the panel before any bolts were removed. It is also crucial that guardrails are always in place around the working platforms of scaffolds to avoid potential falls, often with catastrophic consequences.”

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