A Coroners Court heard how a scaffold tube fell like a ballistic missile before killing a worker on his smoke break.
On August 6, 2010, Anton Dochev, 54, was sitting in the smoking area of the £ 100million Lancasters development in Bayswater, London while scaffolding was being dismantled above him.
The ham & high has reported details of an inquest into Anton death heard that the location of the smoking area and the lack of protection had been raised many times with site management.
Scaffolding supervisor Anthony Crow said: “To put a smoking area under scaffolding, which is a busy site and is being dismantled, is not a good idea.”
He said he had regularly raised the issue at formal health and safety meetings, but the “concerns fell on deaf ears”.
On the day of the tragedy, two “vastly experienced” scaffolders were set the task of dismantling a section of redundent scaffolding.
One of the scaffolders undid a fitting attached to the scaffold tube which then “went like a bullet”, ricocheted off another section and fell to the floor “like a ballistic missile”.
Site safety manager Paul Westie told the court the smoking area was moved after the accident because “it was disrespectful to the deceased to keep it there and the site had moved on and the area needed to be opened up for construction”.
But he claimed precautions at the time of Mr Dochev’s death were “reasonable and appropriate”.
Health and Safety Executive inspector Andrew East, who was brought in to independently review the site after the incident, told the court the incident “could not have been reasonably foreseen”.
He added: “If I had been there before the accident I do not think I would have said there was a problem.”
in summing up HM Coroner Fiona Wilcox said:
“A risk of falling objects in the smoking area was identified and communicated prior to the accident. Alternative options included moving the smoking area, covering it with protective measures, or closing it off during scaffolding work but no action was taken.”
The cause of death was given as an accident.
