A building firm’s director faces heavy criticism as a fatal accident inquiry finds the death of a Polish man on a Dundee building site was “entirely foreseeable and entirely preventable.”
The case has also provoked concerns the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has insufficient resources to maintain an “adequate inspection regime” of Scotland’s construction industry, said Sheriff Richard Davidson.
Andrezej Freitag (55) died after falling down an unguarded smoke extraction shaft at the Tay Spinners construction site, now Lilybank Mews, on May 29, 2008.
Sheriff Davidson’s formal determination following the inquiry at Dundee Sheriff Court, which was released to The Courier last night, severely criticises developer Discovery Homes and the firm’s director Richard Pratt.
“Mr Freitag died as a result of an accident which was entirely foreseeable and entirely preventable,” the judgment states.Utterly ashamed”That is a public scandal and those responsible, particularly Mr Pratt, should be utterly ashamed of their failures,” Sheriff Davidson said.
“There is no doubt that the smoke extraction shaft down which he fell was unguarded and constituted an obvious risk which should have been eliminated and which could have been eliminated both reasonably and practicably.”
Mr Freitag died in the intensive care unit at Ninewells Hospital from brain injuries he sustained in the three-metre drop on to a concrete stair landing. He was pouring and levelling concrete to form stairs at the time of the accident.
Last year Discovery Homes and Mr Pratt were fined a total of £9000 at Dundee Sheriff Court after admitting breaching safety regulations in relation to the incident.
However, Sheriff Davidson said Mr Pratt, who is from Elie, was lucky not be facing further criminal charges for lying to the first health and safety inspector to arrive at the scene.
Mr Pratt had erected barriers after the accident and pretended they had been in place all along, only later confessing the truth on realising the seriousness of Mr Freitag’s condition.FortunateSheriff Davidson said this behaviour required “outright condemnation.”
“Fortunately for him, he decided not to persist with it,” he added.
“But he was still fortunate not to find himself charged with an attempt to pervert the course of justice, and anyone inclined to conduct themselves similarly should be aware of this.”
Turning his attention to the health and safety issues, the sheriff expressed concerns over the number of inspectors employed by the HSE and some of their procedures.
“There is not an adequate number of health and safety inspectors in the employment of the HSE in Scotland to maintain an adequate system of independent inspection of building sites to oversee the maintenance of reasonable standards of health and safety,” he said.
He also criticised the “absurd” practice where inspectors did not carry out follow-up visits to building sites if areas of concern were discovered in an initial inspection.
It emerged during the inquiry that prohibition notices requiring work on a building site to stop until safety concerns are addressed are routinely withdrawn without re-inspections taking place.
“I recognise the limited resources available to the HSE, but consider this practice is unacceptable having regard to the public interest,” said Sheriff Davidson.
“I recommend henceforth that in every case where a prohibition notice is issued that there should be a re-inspection before the prohibition notice is withdrawn to ensure that all matters which gave rise to the issue of the notice have been rectified.”LegacyHe said the legacy of the tragedy should be improvements in safety procedures.
“Governments can regulate until they are blue in the face,” he said. “But unless means are put in place to police compliance with these regulations, some people in the construction industry will continue to assume that they can ignore the rules about workforce safety.
“I urge that there be improvements in the certification of competent staff and the policing of health and safety legislation.
“That will be some small comfort to Mrs Freitag and her family, to all of whom the court extends its condolences.”
An HSE spokeswoman said it took its enforcement responsibilities seriously.
“We are committed to inspecting workplaces and where necessary taking action to ensure employers meet their legal obligations to provide safe working conditions,” she said.
“It is our policy to always follow up on enforcement notices that we have issued.
“We take the issues that the sheriff has raised very seriously and will study the FAI report in detail.”