Companies fined GBP105000 after fatal concrete collapse at Heathrow Terminal 5

Two construction companies have been fined £105,000 after one man died and another was seriously injured when a concrete slab collapsed at Heathrow Airport in 2005, despite an earlier recall of defective equipment.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the principal contractor, Laing O Rourke Infrastructure Limited, Kent; and SGB Services Limited, a supplier of construction equipment, based in Leatherhead, over the incident.

Both companies pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and SGB Services Ltd also pleaded guilty to breaching section 6(1) (c) of the Act.

At a sentencing hearing at Isleworth Crown Court, Laing O Rourke Infrastructure Limited was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £75,000 in costs. SGB Services Ltd was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 in costs.

The court heard that both men were part of a team building a multi-storey car park at Heathrow Airports Terminal 5 construction site. On 3 August 2005, 27-year-old Mathew Gilbert, who was a carpenter from Plymouth, and 21-year-old engineers assistant Parminder Singh, from Slough were standing on a concrete slab, when it collapsed and fell 17 metres to the level below.

Mr Gilbert died in the collapse and Mr Singh suffered serious life-changing injuries; he suffered a broken back, a broken leg and a broken jaw. He has extensive scarring and pain in his back when walking and sitting.

The construction of the car park required the use of Threaded Shoring Adaptors, also known as TSAs which were used to secure parts of the temporary works structure. The HSE investigation revealed that the collapse of the concrete slab was due to the catastrophic failure of two TSAs, which were found to be part of a sub-standard batch manufactured for SGB Services Ltd two years previously.

By supplying a batch of sub-standards TSAs in 2003, SGB Services Ltd failed to ensure that the TSAs they supplied were able to carry maximum loads. Furthermore, the company resupplied the same sub-standard TSAs to construction sites in 2005, despite having implemented a recall programme, which was intended to remove all defective TSAs from circulation.

The HSE investigation also found that Laing O Rourke Infrastructure Ltd failed to have adequate systems in place to inspect the quality and condition of the TSAs before they were used in safety-critical applications, and had failed to remove sub-standard TSAs from use when warned.


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