Gaskells hit with fine for “failing to protect the public”.
A UK demolition company has been fined following the collapse of a cinema they were demolishing onto a busy dual carriageway at rush hour.
Gaskells Demolition Services Ltd was demolishing an art deco cinema dating from 1934 to make way for a supermarket. It had erected scaffolding at the front of the building and was using a high reach excavator to demolish small sections of the building.
On 17 June 2010 a stone fell from the top of the building onto the scaffolding destabilising it which resulted in the scaffolding and part of the building itself collapsing. The debris from the collapse fell onto a busy dual carriageway at rush hour which had to be closed for a number of hours. No one was hurt but there was one near miss and a car was damaged as a result of the collapse.
The HSE investigation identified that the company had not implemented an exclusion zone around the building work nor had it applied to the Council for the road to be closed whilst the work was taking place.
The Court ordered the company to pay a £5000 fine and £3000 in costs.
HSE inspector Anthony Polec said: ”The risk of buildings unexpectedly collapsing is well known in the demolition industry but Gaskells failed to take adequate action to prevent lives being put in danger.
“The company should have put suitable measures in place to protect the public, such as applying to close the roads while the demolition work took place and setting up an exclusion zone to keep the public away.”
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