Tragic demolition death court case ends

A demolition death court case, on which C&D were instructed to provide expert opinion, ended last week at Shrewsbury Court as reported in Health & Safety at Work News:-

A boarding school trust that used a team of inexperienced builders to demolish a classroom must pay £40,000 in penalties after one of the workers suffocated when the building’s roof collapsed on him.

Moor Park Charitable Trust, which runs Moor Park School in Shropshire, admitted failing to ensure the safety of its building contractors, contrary to Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that Moor Park had arranged for Christopher Morris, a self-employed general building worker who was undertaking some minor roofing work at the school, to carry out the demolition. He had then asked four other self-employed builders to help with the work, even though none of them had relevant training or experience.

On 14 August 2007, the 2.4-tonne classroom roof collapsed while the five workers were still inside, killing 40-year-old Mark Evans. The four other men survived without serious injuries only because a dumper truck parked inside part of the building unintentionally created an escape route.

When the HSE investigated, it found the builders had no effective plan for the demolition and had removed integral supports within the classroom’s structure. Before starting the project, Moor Park had not made any reasonable enquiries about the contractors’ competence.

“Had Moor Park School taken reasonable steps to properly consider the demolition work,” said HSE inspector Nic Rigby, “they would have appointed a competent and experienced contractor, and avoided the roof collapse.”

On the 3rd September 2010, Judge Robin Onions fined the school trust £25,000 and ordered it to pay £15,000 prosecution costs.

Read more at www.healthandsafetyatwork.com