An East Yorkshire farm owner has been fined for a serious breach of safety law after a 20-year-old worker suffered severe injuries when he fell 4.5 metres through a roof light.

Daniel Boldan Hoggard was on the roof trying to repair a leak between two adjoining farm buildings at Low Hunsley Farm in Cottingham when he tripped and smashed through one of six rooflights, landing on the concrete floor.

Daniel, now 21, of Shaftesbury Avenue, Goole, punctured a lung and kidney, cracked four vertebrae and had extensive bruising in the incident on 19 July last year. He was in hospital for a week and was unable to work for six weeks. A year on, he is still receiving physiotherapy to ease the longer-term impact of his injuries.


Beverley Magistrates' Court was told that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated the incident and brought a prosecution against farm owner David Adamson.

HSE found Mr Adamson had failed to consider the significant risks involved of working at height and had not put any safeguards or protective controls in place during the roof work.

Magistrates heard Mr Adamson had hired Daniel Boldan Hoggard to help out over the busy summer harvest period and to assist with building repairs and general farm work.

Both men had together made one attempt over several hours to fix the leak on the roof, which sloped from 4.1m to nearly 5m and had six roof lights along its 27m length.

After that failed, Mr Adamson asked Daniel to fit lead flashing where the leaks remained. It was while he was doing this that he tripped, lost his balance and plunged through the roof light on to the concrete below.

David Adamson, of Low Hunsley Farm, Little Weighton, Cottingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 9(2) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. He was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £3,893.90 in costs.

(CD/GK)