Man fell to death from faulty scaffolding

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TEESSIDE SCAFFOLDER

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Man fell to death from faulty scaffolding

9:06am Friday 28th October 2011

A MAN fell to his death from “faulty” scaffolding that was not properly inspected, an inquest heard this week.

Gordon Docherty was a welder for I.C. Electrical and was contracted to carry out work at Universal Beverages Ltd (UBL) in Ledbury.

But tragedy struck when the 51-year-old fell from 10 metres.

He landed on his head and was declared dead as soon as paramedics arrived on October 1, 2009.

The inquest at Hereford Town Hall this week heard that John Boden inspected the scaffolding prior to the start of his shift on the morning of Mr Docherty’s death but admitted that he carried out the 15-minute inspection at ground level. “

I have been on a course since and now know that if you start at the bottom and work the way up, it will take about an hour and a half,” he said.

“I accept that I wasn’t properly qualified to carry out the job.”

Christopher Edge, contract manager for Erector Scaffolding, said he noticed a number of defects when he inspected the scaffolding following Mr Docherty’s death, including a toe board being removed and gaps “large enough for someone to fall through”.

Further investigations showed that the toe board was not clipped properly to the scaffolding.

“John Boden was certified to be an advanced scaffolder so I assume he was by his certificate,” said Mr Edge. “I did not employ him.”

The inquest heard that Mr Docherty had asked his colleague Peter Harrison if he could help pass him a pipe. Mr Harrison said that, because of the pipe’s awkward shape, they decided that the best way to get it up was for it to be attached to rope and for it to be fed up to Mr Docherty via a pulley.

But, shortly afterwards Mr Harrison heard a scream and saw Mr Docherty fall to his death.

Mr Harrison added that Mr Docherty was not struggling in any way in feeding the rope, while Ryan Nicholas, who also witnessed the fall, said he did not see anything dangerous that could have led to the death.

A jury took 20 minutes to reach a verdict of accidental death.

After the inquest, Jackie Docherty said her former husband, who was from Bristol, had been let down by health and safety breaches. “It is tragic that a man goes to work and ends with him losing his life,” she said. “There is now a huge gap in our lives.”

Mr Docherty is also survived by his four children: Raith, 23, Josh, 21, Aaron,18 and Imogen, 11.
 
This report doesnt explain much at all,or have I missed something??
Toe board not clipped properly??????

Best wishes and condolences to family.
 
First and formost condolances to the late Gordon Docherty's Family and Friends
___________________________________________________________

What I get from the post is that an "Advanced Scaffolder"stated he was not competent to inspect the scaffold (no doubt after legal advice)

Christopher Edge, contract manager for Erector Scaffolding..“John Boden was certified to be an advanced scaffolder so I assume he was by his certificate,” said Mr Edge. “I did not employ him.”

Begs the question "who did employ him"?,Who checked his competence before instructing him to inspect the scaffold ?

Appears to me that the blame is being put on the scaffolder that inspected the scaffold. There is no mention of the others that have a duty of care in this case.Or if the HSE is to prosecute any party in this matter

There is a lot of detail missing from this post and I would like Teeside Scaffolder to post his source.

The inquest was held at Hereford Town Hall this week

A jury took 20 minutes to reach a verdict of accidental death.

This is two years after the accident occured. Far to long, I wonder how much money the experts claimed,and what the legal profession billed
 
Nasty accident but it looks to me like the Welder took the toe board of to get the pipe on the scaffold and was bending down reaching out to pull it in when he fell , with no disrespect intended is that not down to him self ?
 
Yes phillio that sounds to me what happened... though it's not entirely clear.

Condolences to the family.
 
Agree with phillio, sounds like the most plausible cause, but if it was double handrailed he must've been pretty low down. Condolences still to his family though.
One big lesson to come from this is: don't take on a job you're A not qualified to do & B not prepared to do properly. Maybe the inspector wouldn't have seen the toeboard or any other faults in his inspection if others have been altering the scaffold, we will never know.
 
Very true Paddy you must make sure you list any faults on your 7 day reports even if they seem almost petty , at the end of the day if your signing it to say its fit for purpose then it needs to be.
 
Rigger said:
First and formost condolances to the late Gordon Docherty's Family and Friends
___________________________________________________________

What I get from the post is that an "Advanced Scaffolder"stated he was not competent to inspect the scaffold (no doubt after legal advice)

Christopher Edge, contract manager for Erector Scaffolding..“John Boden was certified to be an advanced scaffolder so I assume he was by his certificate,” said Mr Edge. “I did not employ him.”

Begs the question "who did employ him"?,Who checked his competence before instructing him to inspect the scaffold ?

Appears to me that the blame is being put on the scaffolder that inspected the scaffold. There is no mention of the others that have a duty of care in this case.Or if the HSE is to prosecute any party in this matter

There is a lot of detail missing from this post and I would like Teeside Scaffolder to post his source.

The inquest was held at Hereford Town Hall this week

A jury took 20 minutes to reach a verdict of accidental death.

This is two years after the accident occured. Far to long, I wonder how much money the experts claimed,and what the legal profession billed
Click to expand...

thank you for the condolences.
but i must put right some other comments. gordon was not threading through the scaffold, he was using a gin wheel. he did not remove a toe board and there was absolutely no suggestion that gordon interferred with the scaffold.
i don't have issue with john bowden, he was given orders by his manager, he knew what he was asking mr bowden to do.
there were no safety checks done on this scaffold, probably ever.
he was not reaching down through the handrails and he was not attempting to alter the scaffold in any way.
there was no blame attached to gordon, he was only threading a gin wheel, the blame lay with the inspections.
personally, i hope the company is prosecuted to the full extent of the law, for each and every health and safety regulation that they fail to observe.

---------- Post added at 08:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:04 PM ----------
philliosmaximus said:
Nasty accident but it looks to me like the Welder took the toe board of to get the pipe on the scaffold and was bending down reaching out to pull it in when he fell , with no disrespect intended is that not down to him self ?
Click to expand...
having sat through hours of evidence, not one other person came to that conclusion.
he was not pulling pipe up through the scaffold, he was threading a gin wheel. the toe board had not been unclipped by gordon, evidence suggests it was never clipped.
he was not at fault for the fall, lack of health and safety inspections were.
 
Thing with inspections is... you can sign a tag off, then 10 min later someone can alter stuff and its not inspected again for 7 days, not saying this was the case with this sad occurance..
 
Without laboring the point. "Threading a ginwheel" ???? Overreaching??
 
JD
"he was not at fault for the fall, lack of health and safety inspections were."

"he was only threading a gin wheel, the blame lay with the inspections."

The only dynamic action you quote,in this tragic accident,was the threading of the rope prior to the late Mr Gordon Docherty falling.

Was he stood on the working platform ?
how far out was the gin wheel from the working platfom ?
how high was the gin wheel above the working platform?

No doubt the Inquest asked all these questions, and returned an "accidental Death" verdict

I cannot see how the scaffold inspection,or lack of it, contributed to this fall.

Is the HSE intending to prosecute anyone in relation to this accident
 
to be honest, enough has been said here. you can't educate pork. there was no evidence of overreaching. and the so called inspection lasting ten minutes from ground level was done that very morning less than 1/2hr before the fall. only the point is there was no inspection done, the aim of the visit that morning was to sign the scaff tag (for appearances sake) and leave. whilst it is noble of you to defend your industry and attempt to apportion blame on others, it is really inappropriate here and unnecessary. that said i am now going to withdraw from any interaction on here as it is deeply upsetting to read from people who have no comprehension of the facts in this case to be commenting and frankly so callous in their defence of the incompetency of the standards of one company in the industry.
you appear to be defending the indefensible without regard to fact.
truth is knowledge
gossip is speculation and fantasy
and there will always be those that have no thirst for knowledge.
god bless and be safe.
 
Apologies jd, no disrespect meant. Thanks for introducing yourself and good luck for the future.
 
The main thing I dont get with this whole story is the fact there was holes in the scaffold platform big enough for a man to fall through.

Am I missing the point here or not but : Regardless of how many inspections were or were not done, the fact remains that a scaffold was erected with a platform with holes in it big enough for a man to fall through.

So obviously we dont fully know the facts of this case, but either boards were removed at some point by someone and not replaced or handrailed off, or the scaffold was erected around machinery or plant of somesort with obstacles making it awkward to lie a boarded platform properly, therefore either the main contractor or the scaffold contractor should have employed someone to cut and fit plyboard or similar over the holes.

And if that was the case the scaffold should never have been handed over in the first place.
 
Rightly or wrongly I assumed the toe board was either dis-lodged or removed then he fell through the gap between the floor and the mid-rail whilst trying to fit a gin wheel. I might be wrong as usual as I am not sure why you would fit a gin wheel at your feet but you are right, we don't know the whole facts.
 
Im just going off the report in first post Aom.

toeboard removed which more investigation showed it was only clipped at one end . how can you tell if its been removed ? or is it 2 different toeboards they talking about.

Gaps big enough to allow a man to fall through.

Where exactly were they attaching the pulley, why was the scaffold not erected to include a point to attach a pully, aswell as a ladder gate to allow materials to be pulled onto the platform.

If an Advanced scaffolder cannot do a half decent inspection of a scaffold without having to go on a course , his brain must fcukin broken.

Could be the way Im reading the report or the way the report is worded but a lot of things just dont add up here.

At end of day a man has lost his life , A family has lost its Father / husband, a man should be able to go to work on a morning and return home to his loved ones at night with all his fingers, toes and health in one piece . ( my nebosh instructor used that saying all the time )

condolences to all the family JD1365
 
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