A Wellington business has been fined and ordered to pay reparations after a worker suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling six metres from a slippery roof.
In April 2023, 38-year-old Josh Bowles was working on a commercial rooftop without a harness when he fell, suffering a traumatic brain injury and multiple broken bones.
The father of five had only been working for Prowash, a business specialising in washing buildings and houses, for two months and had no experience or training in working at height.
Bowles spent six months in hospital recovering from his injuries, according to WorkSafe.
He still lives with continuous pain and has been unable to work since the fall.
A subsequent WorkSafe investigation found there was limited edge protection to the roofline.
“In its absence, a harness system should have been used to keep workers safe but was not,” WorkSafe said.
Bowles had no formal training on how to use a harness or roof anchors.
The work health and safety regulator found Prowash did not properly manage the risks of working in rainy conditions on a new iron roof with cleaning products.
It added that Prowash was unable to provide any policies or risk/hazard identification and control process to prove it had a safe system in place.
WorkSafe principal inspector Paul Budd called the accident “a preventable fall which has permanently impacted a young father’s quality of life and job prospects”.
“Falls from height are a well-known risk and there is no excuse for not putting proper protections in place – especially in bad weather.”
Prowash was fined $40,000 and ordered to pay reparations of $77,456 at sentencing in the Wellington District Court on Tuesday.
Budd said the sentence was a reminder for businesses to assess the risks before working at height.
“If the work needs to be postponed until conditions are more favourable, then do so,” he said.
“The best controls are those that don’t require active judgement by a worker. This includes solutions such as edge protection or scaffolding.
“If a worker slips or missteps, as we saw in this case, there is a physical barrier between themselves and the ground below.”
