A Scaffold Tower Fell on Two Members of the Public — And the Company Had Already Been Warned

A scaffold tower fell onto two members of the public on Putney High Street.

They were seriously injured. Boards of sheeting had been attached to the tower without anyone stopping to think about what happens when wind hits a sail. The structure overturned. Two people who were just walking past ended up trapped underneath it.

According to the HSE press release, Add Prop Limited had previously been served a Prohibition Notice in relation to unsafe work involving a tower scaffold at a separate site.

The company was found guilty of breaching the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. Fined £20,000 plus £7,000 costs. The sole director, Atif Riaz, who was present on the day supervising the work, was fined personally under Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act — an additional £1,730 plus £1,730 costs.

Tower Scaffolds Overturning Is Not a Freak Event

HSE's own inspector said "every year people are injured when scaffold towers overturn." The risks of wind loading on sheeted scaffolds are well known within the industry. This was not an unforeseeable accident.

The CDM Regulations are clear. Temporary structures must be designed, installed and maintained to withstand foreseeable loads — including wind. Assembly must be carried out by trained, competent people, in line with manufacturer's instructions. HSE found that the tower had not been erected by adequately trained or competent persons, had not been assembled in line with the manufacturer's instructions, and that the decision to sheet the structure without accounting for wind loading was made without adequate risk assessment.

What This Means if You Use Scaffold Towers

If you're a principal contractor, or you oversee any work involving temporary structures, this case is worth sitting with for a moment.

The failure here was not exotic. It was a mobile tower scaffold covered in sheeting on a windy day, assembled by people who were not qualified to do it, at a company that had previously received a Prohibition Notice for the same type of issue at another site.

A few basic questions worth asking:

Are the people assembling your tower scaffolds trained and competent, and can you demonstrate that?
Are inspections being carried out and recorded?
When you sheet a scaffold, does your risk assessment account for wind loading?
Has your company received any enforcement notices — improvement or prohibition — that have not been fully acted on?

A Prohibition Notice is a formal finding that what you are doing creates a risk of serious personal injury. It requires immediate action, not filing.

A Scaffold Tower Fell on Two Members of the Public — And the Company Had Already Been Warned

Tower Scaffolds Overturning Is Not a Freak Event

What This Means if You Use Scaffold Towers

Further Reading