School board sentenced after teacher & student injured on scaffold

<h3>A school board of trustees was sentenced at the Tokoroa District Court yesterday after a mobile scaffold toppled over&comma; injuring a teacher and student&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Mobile scaffolding was erected in Forest View High School’s auditorium to assist with setting up lighting for plays and assemblies&period; In June 2018 a teacher and student fell from the 3&period;9 metre high working platform of the scaffold after it tipped over as it was being moved&period; Both were knocked unconscious and suffered serious lacerations&comma; fractures and brain injuries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>WorkSafe’s Chief Inspector Investigations Hayden Mander said the school had not developed a safe system of work around the use of the mobile scaffold&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There were no policies or procedures in place around working from heights&comma; or for student involvement in the use of the scaffold&comma;” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;With no safe systems in place students and staff were exposed to a very real risk of injury and this incident could have had catastrophic consequences&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The judge imposed a health and safety project order under section 155 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 in place of a fine&period; Reparation of &dollar;100&comma;000 was also ordered&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The order will require The Forest View High School Board of Trustees to prepare and present a safety presentation at the National Conference of the School Trustees Association in 2020&comma; with a focus on the need to develop and implement a suitable risk management system for in the classroom and extra-curricular activities&period; As well as this they are also required to prepare a safety article for New Zealand’s online school bulletin&comma; He Pitopito Korero&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In 2018&comma; 2136 workers were away from work for a week or longer as the result of a fall from heights&comma; said Mr Mander&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The risks associated with working from heights are well known and this is why it remains a key focus area for WorkSafe as a regulator&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;