The operator of a Sheffield dental practice has been fined for safety failings after a receptionist fell more than three metres through a roof light while spending her lunch break on the flat roof of the surgery.
The woman, then 40, went on to the roof of a single-storey extension at the Firvale Dental Practice, operated by Integrated Dental Holdings, with a colleague at lunchtime.
During a two-week trial, Sheffield Crown Court heard the woman sat on the domed roof light, not realising how fragile it was. The plastic of the roof light gave way and she fell to the floor injuring her back, shoulder, knee and neck and was hospitalised. The jury heard that at least five other workers had used the roof, and were at risk of falling from the roof edge or through the roof lights.
The prosecution against Integrated Dental Holdings Ltd., of Bolton, Lancashire, was brought after a detailed investigation into the incident, on 25 March 2009, by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
The court heard the flat roof of the surgery, based in Blyde Road, was easily reached using a door on the first floor of the main building. Although the door was locked, the key was left hanging nearby.
Some four years earlier, in a risk assessment by its own health and safety consultant, the practice had been warned the roof lights were fragile and that no protection was in place to prevent falls from the open roof edges. The owner had also failed to act on advice to remove the keys to the roof access door and to post 'no entry' signs.
Integrated Dental Holdings of Sunset Business Park in Kearsley, Bolton, a leading dental group in the UK, was found guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £18,500 with costs of £71,632.79.