A LABOURER’S right arm was crushed under falling roof trusses after a council failed to ensure adequate safety measures were in place to protect workers on a building site.

The man had been walking in front of a building plot in Darlington when a pack of roof timbers fell on top of him, trapping him by the head and arm.

He was eventually freed, but sustained serious injuries to his right arm following the incident at Allington Way on October 5, 2017.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that there was an overall failure to “adequately monitor work activities” at the site operated by Darlington Borough Council.

The injured man was self-employed and working for two self-employed bricklayers sub-contracted to Darlington Borough Council at the time.

Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court heard last week how the HSE investigation found factors leading to the incident included inadequate roof truss storage, failure to manage the amount of materials on site, failure to plan for parking of vehicles on site and poor housekeeping on site.

Darlington Borough Council of Town Hall, Darlington, pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations and was fined £28,000 and ordered to pay £1,648.45 costs.

HSE inspector Andrea Robbins said: “It is vital that work activities on construction sites are properly planned, managed and monitored to prevent issues like this developing on site – the failures found here ultimately led to the roof trusses falling onto the labourer, causing serious injuries.

“This could have been prevented.”

Paul Wildsmith, managing director of Darlington Borough Council, apologised to the labourer and his family on behalf of the authority.

He added: “We encountered a number of challenges in relation to this construction project due to the ground conditions at the site. We accept that we did not respond to those challenges as effectively as we could have, and we deeply regret this.

“As soon as this incident happened, we began a thorough internal investigation and have put measures in place to ensure this does not happen again.

“We are extremely sorry for what happened and we hope he continues to make a good recovery."