Construction company fined after incident paralyses lone worker

An incident on a house renovation site has paralysed a man from the chest down, after he fell through a ceiling.

Andrew Clifford (51) had been working alone at a house on Main Road in Dronfield, installing first-floor joists. He was working on behalf Paul Freeman Limited, which had been his employer for around 20 years.

On 31 October 2022, Mr Clifford was working on the joists when he slipped and fell from the first floor to the ground below. Lying face down on the floor, he was unable to move. Judging the time by hourly news bulletins on his radio, it was around six hours before he was found by a delivery driver. 

Mr Clifford was in hospital for nearly five months. His spinal cord was so seriously injured, the incident left him paralysed from the chest down, with limited movement possible in his hands and arms.

He spoke about the incident in a victim statement:

“The first thing I recall after my fall was landing on my head. From that point it was a very strange feeling as from when I landed, I felt no pain and I couldn’t understand why or that I couldn’t get up.

“I think I fell between 9am and 9.30 and wasn’t found until 3pm.”

A father of three from Chesterfield, Mr Clifford loved being a builder. He described the impact the incident has had on his everyday life:

“I can’t do anything I used to love doing before,” he said.

“Simple things like doing the gardening, washing the car and jobs around the house.

“I can’t even wash or dress myself now.

“I haven’t been upstairs in my house since the accident – my wife and three daughters all sleep upstairs and I sleep alone downstairs.

“Another thing that really upsets me is the thought of not being able to walk my daughters down the aisle when they get married.”

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the incident, and found that Paul Freeman Limited failed to ensure that work at height had been properly planned. As a result, there were no measures in place to prevent falls during the construction of the first floor.

Mr Clifford’s employer failed to provide suitable instruction as to how the work should be carried out. He was left to work this out on his own.

Paul Freeman Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Derby Magistrates’ Court on 4 November 2024. They were fined £40,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,263.

Commenting on the case, HSE Inspector Sara Andrews said:

“My thoughts remain with Andrew and his family, whose lives have changed dramatically as a result of this preventable incident.

“This case highlights the importance of undertaking a thorough assessment of the risks for all work at height activities and the need to ensure that, where work at height cannot be avoided, suitable control measures are implemented to minimise the risk of serious injury.

“This is even more significant when lone working.”

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