When a tragic accident can’t be prevented and happens in a matter of seconds
What happened?
A 12 year old boy was attending his school. He had been warned earlier in the day about sliding down banisters by a teacher when he tried to do just that, falling 20 feet (6m). He died in hospital eight days after suffering severe head injuries. He was declared ‘brain-stem dead’ and his cause of death was given as ‘severe traumatic brain injury’ due to a ‘fall from height’.
An HSE inspector said: ‘guardrails and fencing around the stairs provided a good standard of protection for those who were using the stairwell in a reasonable manner.’
The inquest heard how a police investigation found that ‘pupils do sometimes slide on the banisters or go on the banisters’ at the school. A police officer said: ‘15 or 16 pupils were spoken to by police and no one else has given any indication that anyone else was involved in the boy falling. Moments before it happened, he was speaking to a friend, having a bit of a laugh so there’s absolutely no suggestion that this happened on purpose.’
The inquest heard the boy was wearing a heavy schoolbag at the time. A detective sergeant said: ‘My personal opinion is that that bag has caused the unbalancing which as caused (the boy) to fall off the bannisters.’
Legal Outcome
After hearing the evidence at the inquest, the senior coroner concluded the boy died as a result of ‘misadventure’. She said: ‘This is an intentional act which had unintentional consequences, my conclusion is misadventure.
‘I’m satisfied from the evidence I’ve heard that (the boy) went on to the stair banister with the intention of sliding down it and clearly that’s not its purpose.
What can we learn from what happened?
A genuine accident in the most accepted interpretation of the word. Yes, the school had a duty of care for the boy, but the school can only go so far to ensure the safety of their pupils.
It is clear from this case that there were no design, structural or maintenance issues here, and the supervision systems to monitor the behaviour of the pupils was good, reinforced by the warning given to the boy on the day of his fall.
Very sadly, the boy was too tempted by the banister, and while the weight of his back pack may have contributed, he chose to do something that he was not allowed to do, and the banister wasn’t designed for. It will have happened in a second or two, and from the information available was not preventable.
Source of Information
BBC Online
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