When a wall collapsing is a ‘low frequency’, but ‘high consequence’ event
What happened?
A wall, which spanned the back of two houses in Fleetway, Essex, collapsed onto a 6 year-old girl during a family barbeque in August 2016.
The girl sustained serious and life-threatening injuries and was placed in an induced coma which left her in intensive care for seven days and in hospital for ten days in total. She has made a good recovery but still suffers some physical and emotional problems.
The HSE’s investigation discovered that Basildon Borough Council, who were responsible for the wall, had been told about its poor condition by tenants two years prior to the incident but had failed to take any action. There were also wider concerns about the condition of several other brick walls in the area, including council-owned walls, which were not were not passed to building control or the council’s inspections teams.
The council failed to implement a system of intelligence-led inspection, maintenance and repair, to adequately identify and remedy the risks of collapses to boundary walls, both owned solely by the Council, or jointly with private residents.
Following the case, an HSE Inspector said: “Despite the low frequency of wall collapses, they are high consequence events requiring those with the responsibility for structural safety to take proactive measures to ensure that boundary walls and other structures are safely maintained.”
Legal Outcome
In the February 2019 court case, Basildon Borough Council pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and has been fined of £133,333 and ordered to pay costs of £21,419.55.
What can we learn from what happened?
The phrase ‘high consequence events’ is the key here. While this was a council owned wall, walls are everywhere and are the responsibility of many different duty holders. It can be easy to take their structural integrity for granted, but they will weaken over time and may be liable to fail and fall.
There are examples of more serious consequences due to being struck by a collapsed wall than the one detailed above, so including any type of brick built wall in an organisation’s safety systems is extremely important.
Source of Information
SHP Online