01.11.2005

Makeshift platform costs Data company £47,000 +

Iron Mountain, the global data company, was fined £40,000 plus £7,400 costs after an employee suffered serious injuries from a 3.5 m fall from a makeshift work platform.

The UK arm of the global data management company Iron Mountain was fined £40,000, the maximum possible, at the City of London Magistrates Court last week. It followed an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into an incident at the company's premises on North Woolwich Road, Silvertown.

Tristan Arkless, 22, from Woodford Green was seriously injured with crushed vertebrae and fractured pelvis after he fell 3.5 metres from a temporary platform erected between two racking units in a warehouse on 27 July 2003 at the Record Centre.

Arkless and three temporary workers were attempting to remove archive boxes from the higher shelves in the warehouse, with no effective measures to prevent the fall.

HSE Inspector John Crookes, who investigated the incident, said: "This is an example of what can happen when work at height is not properly planned and when young, inexperienced workers are not supervised. It highlights the need for companies to make sure safety procedures are in place whenever their employees are at work, not just during normal hours.

"The company should have made a proper risk assessment prior to commencing the job and provided a system of work incorporating a safe means of access, such as a tower scaffold, an order picker or cherry picker, together with appropriate training tailored to the use of the equipment chosen. At no stage should employees have been required to climb the racking itself.

"The company should also have ensured that a competent supervisor was present on site, i.e. someone who could assess the risks and, unlike Mr Arkless and the temporary workers, recognise that working at a height of 3.5 metres on unsecured boards placed across an aisle between two racking units was unsafe and should not have been attempted.

Iron Mountain Ltd, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was charged £20,000 for each breach and was also ordered to pay £5,000 compensation to the victim and court costs of £2,376.