Martin Supple from Whitstable in Kent has been awarded £5,500 in compensation for an injury he suffered to his shoulder while working for Solaglas Ltd. in Canterbury in 2002.

Mr Supple was placing a large sheet of glass into a wooden rack when the glass hit a metal girder and shattered, causing a bone-deep laceration to his right shoulder.

Solaglas denied liability on the grounds that Mr Supple was an experienced glasscutter and had used the rack safely for years. The company claimed that he was responsible for the accident. However, it emerged in court that Solaglas had failed to implement health and safety measures to protect its workforce following a similar accident two years earlier.

The judge at Canterbury County Court found that Solaglas was negligent in not updating the personal protective equipment available to its workers following the earlier accident. In addition, had the metal girder been removed after the accident in 2000, the injury to Mr Supple might not have happened. The metal girder has since been removed and replaced with a wooden one.