This is anyone’s worst nightmare – being high up when the floor beneath you collapses. The injuries you can sustain from falling from a height, or hitting something as you fall from a low height, can be significant. Our bodies can endure a great deal of punishment, but there only so much twisting, turning, thudding, breaking, and bouncing our body parts can take.
We get a lot of these sorts of claims and they commonly relate to accidents at work. Employees are casually working on scaffolding when the floor decking collapses or breaks, causing you to fall. Equally, the structure of the scaffolding could break apart. It’s normally caused by one of two things: poor construction of the scaffolding, or poor maintenance of the scaffolding.
Whoever is responsible for the scaffolding – whether it’s your employers, or another company you are working with or for on some kind of site or project – must ensure that the scaffolding is erected correctly and is maintained efficiently to prevent such accidents occurring. Health and safety inspections and checking is an easy way to do this. Those responsible for putting up the scaffolding need to be properly trained and provided with the right equipment as well.
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