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Posted By Andy Wignall
Hi All
I was just wondering if you could give me some guidance on this matter at hand
My friend was walking in amble side in the lake district with his wife, and as they were passing by a set of scaffolding, a hammer fell from the top of the scaffolding and struck my friends wife on the head.
She was taken to hospital with concussion and she was kept in hospital over about 3 nights, she is OK now, but still needs to regularly see her doctor. The HSE are investigating with the police.
My friend through his union's solicitors are obviously going to pursue civil action. Could someone give me information and advice on the steps that will be taken and what the outcome will most likely be?
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Posted By Garry Adams
Hi Andy
This is a Tort against the person, both Criminal and Civil law will be involved.
This may be a case where insufficient, Signage, Barriers and Protective Strategies were omitted by either the Scaffolding Sub-Contractor or the Principal Building Contractor. A strong case for Compensation to the injured party...Mmm must have been a sore one.
Garry...
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Posted By willhiem
Andy,
Was this supposed friend you and this supposed scaffolding your hand??
Nasty accident, was she offered any treatment on site, would you have been in a position to notice anything wrong with the scaffolding? have the main contractors been in contact?
There could be any number of courses of action which could be taken, it all depends on how it happened, it may well not have been the scaffolder (the scaffold could have been erected properly or could have been missing a toe board.) its more likely the hammer fell from someone not involved with the scaffolder (unless it was a scaffolders hammer of course)
i wonder what was in the planning details and why if this scaffold was on the street or near a street why was a covered walkway not introduced / even dust covers might've worked.
I reckon the client / cmdc / main contractor / scaffolders (maybe) / whatever contractor who may have been involved in the task associated with the hammer and You Andy may all be looking at paying a bit towards this accident, both in fines and compo.
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Posted By Bill01
Hi Andy,
As Garry points out above the law of tort applies with respect to compensation and you have to show:
A duty of care was owed.
There was negligence.
A loss or injury was sustained.
Compenation is based on probability so it has not to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Good luck.
Bill.
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Posted By Bob Shillabeer
Never mind the talk about torts etc, go and engage a good lawyer and see what he can do. There seems to be a clear breach somewhere, unless of course as suggested (a bit unfairly) that you hit the poor lady in a fit of rage.
seriously though if the police and the HSE are investigating from a point of view of statutory wrong doing you need to get a good solicitor on the job to follow up and seek some form of compensation and to cover any medical costs that may be incurred
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Posted By Dave Merchant
The breach would be under Work at Height Regulations 10(1) and (2), which covers injuries to persons (at work or not) caused by falling objects. 10(2) is an absolute prohibition rather than a sliding-scaled RP, so the fact there was an object falling, and a person, and one came into contact with the other, means 10(2) was breached no matter how many protective measures the site was adopting or how good they were.
Note that WAHR(11) does not apply as the injured person was a member of the public, so not capable of having their actions restricted by HASAWA.
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Posted By willhiem
well i meant that bit in terms of the client and main contractor, apologies for the confusion.
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Posted By Phil Grace
I tend to agree with the comment that you should forget all the talk about Regs and "stuff" and engage a good lawyer. From your description should be easy to prove... for a bit of Latin...
res ipsa loquitur
which can be roughly translated as "it speaks for itself". Which means someone was walking along the road, they were hit on the head by a falling object - it's your fault. Let the Main/Principal Contractor, sub-contractors, scaffolders, roofing contractor etc sort it out amongst themselves.
Phil
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Posted By Tony Priest
This sounds like a typical NEBOSH exam question lol.
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