Skylights – Passive Protection Is The Best Way To Prevent An Accident

Over the years rooflights become brittle due to weathering and are prone to cracking

Falls through unguarded skylights result in serious injury or death, and whilst this prospect does not bear thinking about, it is important to remember that the full responsibility of your employees and contractors lies with yourself. This is why the HSE demands that employers provide suitable fall protection.

You may feel that you have adequate safety provisions on your roof to prevent falls, but have you also considered a rescue plan should a fall occur. Heightsafe Systems provide consultancy on fall prevention and rescue.

In particular a recent HSE investigation carried out after a fatal fall through a skylight, found that there were no coverings in place on any of the roof’s skylights to prevent the fall. Furthermore no handrail was installed and resulted in this fatal fall. These are very serious health and safety breaches. The measures in place at the time simply did not amount to a safe system of work.

The Health and Safety Offences Act 2008, which came into force on 16 January 2009, raised the maximum possible fine in a magistrates’ court for this type of breach from £5,000 to £20,000. This is just for breaching the regulation but in reality one fall could cost millions of pounds in a court of law if prosecuted for Corporate Manslaughter and non-compliance.

Regulations state that every skylight, shall be guarded by a standard skylight cover or fixed standard railing on all exposed sides

The employer should determine if the walking/working surfaces on which the employees and Contractors are to work, have the strength and structural integrity to support them safely, and take immediate action to protect falls through skylights.

Personnel walking/working surfaces need to be protected from falling through skylights by personal fall arrest systems, skylight covers, or guardrail systems erected around such areas.

Understanding the different factors involved with fall arrest systems, Heightsafe Systems will assist you in making the correct choice for your particular application. We design and install a wide range of solutions. We look to provide quotes for all solutions available so that you make an informed decision as to which system best meets your requirements.

Our Skylight Covers are safety products that provide protection to prevent falls through acrylic dome and corrugated fibreglass skylights. Unlike many safety products, properly installed Skylight Screens completely eliminate the hazard.

Danger exists, since roofers, workers, and even children have been seriously injured and killed by a multitude of falls through unguarded skylights. Below are a couple of such instances reported on by the HSE

  • A 13-year-old boy died when he fell through a plastic skylight on the roof of a farm building.
  • A 42-year-old Employee fell through a fragile skylight as he walked across the roof of an agricultural building carrying out general maintenance

Heightsafe Systems will be happy to visit your sit and provide you with a full fall protection solution following a detailed Risk Assessment by our Team of Working at Height specialists.

Please contact us for further details, and if possible provide us with an approx size of your skylights and we will endeavour to give your an instant quotation.



Link to us

If you want to link to this blog, copy and paste the following HTML code to your website.