17.02.2015

Nine years to prosecute

The HSE is finally prosecuting a company and its owner for the fatal tower crane collapse in Battersea in 2006.

Falcon Crane Hire Ltd and Doug Genge will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on February 25th for the first hearing concerning breaches of the UK’s Health & Safety at Work Act for alleged failings with maintenance and overloading of the crane. Crane operator Jonathon Cloke and local resident Michael Alexa were both killed in the incident, after the crane’s slew ring gave way causing it to fall into the site and the street below - see:Two die, 100 evacuated as crane collapses.

An inquest into the tragedy in 2012 returned a narrative verdict after criticism of the crane’s condition and maintenance regime - see: Battersea Crane Verdict. Evidence given at the inquest suggested that the wrong manual had accompanied the crane - a 28 year old BPR - indicating a 12.2 tonne counterweight should be used. However the incorrect counterweight installed for the long back-mast was eight tonnes.
See HSE suspends Falcon Cranes
See Falcon issues statement

Vertikal Comment

While the evidence presented at the inquest indicated a number of failings on the crane, strongly indicating serious errors and a lack of good safety practices, not to mention the age and the state of the crane, it is a total scandal that this should take almost nine years to be prosecuted. In many other democratic jurisdictions a statute of limitations would have prevented this going to court at such a late stage.

Falcon Crane Hire and the industry as a whole are totally different businesses than they were back then. While still far from perfect with excessive hours worked and rental rates barely economic, this incident and another that followed, served as a wake-up call that saw huge changes, including a range of Technical Information Notices/best practice guides, fleet renewals and a completely new approach.

Not that this can compensate for the pain and suffering that the families of the two deceased, but if there was a case to answer then it should have gone to court at the earliest opportunity. There will be those who will say that it had to wait until the inquest had finished, but then holding an inquest five years after the event is a total joke in itself and not one that a civilised country should accept under any circumstances.

Holding the threat of prosecution over the head of a company and its directors for over eight years could be considered to be inhuman, but more importantly any outcomes have failed to help improve safety in the intervening years. But even worse than that is the effect on the two families, which having faced the most shocking and stressful event in life - losing a loved one - then seeing the whole situation left in limbo for five years, preventing closure and causing them to re-live the whole thing again, just when they might have been getting on with their lives. And then, if that is not punishment enough, they have to go through the enchilada a second time three years after that. It is inexcusable.

The Health & Safety Executive, and the Crown Prosecution Service should be ashamed.