Westland Nurseries has been fined £12,000 after a worker suffered serious head injuries falling through a greenhouse roof.

The 21-year-old man was cleaning away moss between two greenhouse roofs when he slipped off a narrow gutter and fell through a pane of glass onto the concrete floor three metres below.

He suffered concussion with blood on the brain, fractured his hand and sustained cuts and bruises meaning he could not work for three months after the incident, the Evesham Observer reported.

Chairman of Worcester Magistrates' court, Tony Fussey, said Westland Nurseries usually had a good safety record but in this instance the risk was obvious.

“A layman would have realised someone 10 feet up moving along a guttering, stretching out sideways was in danger of falling,” Fussey said.

Principal director of the nursery, Martin Boers, pleaded guilty to the business breaching health and safety law at its Ferry Lane site in Offenham, Evesham.

The court proceedings followed a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inquiry into the incident.

Inspector Chris Gregory said no risk assessment was carried out for the job, which involved walking on a surface that was just 4.5 inches wide, and staff had been doing it for 17 years.

On top of the £12,000 Westland Nurseries was also ordered to pay £6,835 costs.

Gregory read out a statement from the injured man, in which he said he was aware of the danger he faced, the Evesham Journal reported.

“Although we were clear about the risks, we had not refused to work. We had gone there to work. We talked among ourselves that this might have fatal consequences,” Gregory read.

“A fall from height through a fragile material is a risk and a foreseeable risk and results in fatal accidents every year.”

He added the company had been “blind to the risks and relied on their previous good luck over many years”.

Guidance on working safely on glasshouse roofs is available from the Health and Safety Executive website.

Topics