On 23 February 2016, the boiler house at the Didcot A Power Station collapsed prematurely during a delicate demolition process. The unplanned collapse cost the lives of four men.
That incident happened in an instant. Those four lives were cut tragically short in the blink of an eye. In a matter of seconds, the potential dangers of working within the demolition industry became very, very real.
But if those few seconds were tragic, the hours, days, weeks, months and years that have followed have been beyond cruel.
Tomorrow marks the 3,000th day since that terrible incident.
3,000 days in which four families have mourned the unnecessary loss of a loved one.
3,000 days in which the industry has waited for an explanation.
3,000 days in which the Thames Valley Police has supposedly been investigating while producing not a single finding.
3,000 days in which the Health and Safety Executive has moved not one inch closer to a prosecution or a conclusion.
3,000 days in which the Criminal Prosecution Service has been asleep at the wheel.
3,000 days in which consecutive governments have failed the deceased and the bereaved families.
What the investigating authorities have been doing these past 3,000 days I cannot explain. How the industry has retained any faith in or connection with those investigating authorities I cannot begin to understand. How the families of those four men have endured those 3,000 days I cannot even imagine.
But, 3,000 days have elapsed since the worst demolition accident in living memory. And we are still watching and waiting.
Each of those 3,000 days has inflicted a fresh wound upon the bereaved families. Every subsequent day only deepens those wounds.
3,000 cruel and painful days. 3,000 awful, awful days.
