By reader acclaim: UK handyman props ladder against branch he’s sawing off

The injured man “took the [legal] action after health and safety inspectors concluded the hotel failed to carry out a risk assessment on the dangers of pruning. They also said that his employer should have given him training on where to place the ladder.” [Telegraph, Daily Mail]

7 Comments

  • Just Darwin trying to do his job.

  • LOL! Bumper you beat me to it. I marvel at the fact that he has managed to survive to 64 years of age.

  • because it needs repeating (from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long by R. A. Heinlien):

    “Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”

  • And to think that England was the home of Isaac Newton…

  • Darwinian Stupidity ought to be a sovereign defense against liability.

    “Your honor, he was too stupid to live.”

    “Case dismissed.”

  • Strange. As a result of my educational experience, I would expect the tree branch to remain and the tree to fall over. That’s what I learned from the Roadrunner cartoons.

    Obviously he needs to sue the estate of Chuck Jones.

    Bob

  • The company was fined for failing to fill in a Risk Assessment and provide training. What grips me is that the gardner who he was working with ” knows he ought to have tied the ladder to the trunk of the tree and not the branch to be cut” He also knew he should not have been doing that job as a specialist would have been hired. So what amount of risk assessing and training would have actually stopped this accident? What risk assessment or training would be needed if it was not their job anyway?

    The Hotel is not being fined for failing to prevent an accident, but simply because there was an accident.