Barratt Homes has been fined £20,000 after a young boy was seriously injured when some timber roof trusses fell onto him.
BDW Developments (trading as Barratt Homes) was fined at Paisley Sheriff Court on Tuesday after it pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
The eight-year-old boy was playing with friends on April 28, 2009 when they got into an unsecured storage area on a construction site at Meadowbrook, Linwood, near Paisley.
As the children were playing in the storage area, some timber roof trusses fell onto the boy, trapping him underneath. He was rescued by two neighbours who managed to lever the roof trusses off him, allowing him to escape.
His injuries were so serious that he was transferred to Yorkhill Children’s Hospital in Glasgow suffering a serious injury to his liver and abdominal bleeding. In the months following the incident, he developed several anxiety-related symptoms such as nightmares and poor concentration.
A Health & Safety Executive investigation found the construction site was only partially fenced and that the roof trusses had, at some point, been stacked upright which made them unstable and more likely to fall over.
