Companies fined after fatal concrete collapse at Heathrow Terminal 5

Date:

6 November 2009

Two construction companies have today been fined £105,000 after one man died and another was seriously injured when a concrete slab collapsed at Heathrow Airport in 2005, despite an earlier recall of defective equipment.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the principal contractor, Laing O'Rourke Infrastructure Limited, of Anchor Boulevard, Dartford in Kent; and SGB Services Limited, a supplier of construction equipment, based in Kingston Road in Leatherhead, over the incident.

Both companies pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and SGB Services Ltd also pleaded guilty to breaching section 6(1) (c) of the Act.

At a sentencing hearing today at Isleworth Crown Court, Laing O'Rourke Infrastructure Limited was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £75,000 in costs. SGB Services Ltd was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 in costs.

The court heard that both men were part of a team building a multi-storey car park at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 construction site. On 3 August 2005, 27-year-old Mathew Gilbert, who was a carpenter from Plymouth, and 21-year-old engineer's assistant Parminder Singh, from Slough were standing on a concrete slab, when it collapsed and fell 17 metres to the level below.

Mr Gilbert died in the collapse and Mr Singh suffered serious life-changing injuries; he suffered a broken back, a broken leg and a broken jaw. He has extensive scarring and pain in his back when walking and sitting.

The construction of the car park required the use of Threaded Shoring Adaptors, also known as TSAs which were used to secure parts of the temporary works structure. The HSE investigation revealed that the collapse of the concrete slab was due to the catastrophic failure of two TSAs, which were found to be part of a sub-standard batch manufactured for SGB Services Ltd two years previously.

By supplying a batch of sub-standards TSAs in 2003, SGB Services Ltd failed to ensure that the TSAs they supplied were able to carry maximum loads. Furthermore, the company resupplied the same sub-standard TSAs to construction sites in 2005, despite having implemented a recall programme, which was intended to remove all defective TSAs from circulation.

The HSE investigation also found that Laing O'Rourke Infrastructure Ltd failed to have adequate systems in place to inspect the quality and condition of the TSAs before they were used in safety-critical applications, and had failed to remove sub-standard TSAs from use when warned.

HSE Inspector Karen Morris said:

"The tragic death of one man and the serious injuries suffered by his colleague could have been prevented if both companies had had more robust systems in place. It is vital that safety-critical components are inspected before use to ensure that defective equipment is not used.

"It is also crucial that recall programmes are carried out effectively and thoroughly, so that defective components can not under any circumstances be brought back into circulation".

"This case demonstrates an extremely serious failure of both the principal contractor and the supplier to ensure the materials they supplied for the work were fit for purpose."

Note to editors

1. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
2. Section 6(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of any person who designs, manufactures, imports or supplies any article for use at work to take such steps as are necessary to secure that persons supplied by that person with the article are provided with adequate information about the use for which the article is designed or has been tested and about any conditions necessary to ensure that it will be safe and without risks to health at all times..."
3. Photos of the incident are available on request.

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