Man in City death fall

A steel erector who fell to his death from the tenth floor of the new Citibank office building in London was not wearing a safety harness.

Stephen Hayhurst, 32, of Nelson, Lancashire, fell 30m down a service void while working on the Norman Foster project at Canary Wharf on 12 March. St Pancras Coroner's Court recorded an open verdict last week.

Hayhurst worked for FLB Construction, a company subcontracted by Watson Steel to install the stairs.

Pathologist Dr Freddy Patel said Hayhurst died of severe head injuries after he plunged from level 10 to level 2 at the site.

However, the site manager for Watson Steel, Leo Joyce said that the two workers should never have been working higher than level five.

Mark Shearon, Health and Safety Inspector, said: "Mr Hayhurst was working in one of the two steel cores in the building. A fault had to be rectified and the stairs were lifted for the shims to be inserted. The service void was covered with a piece of plywood but only just."

Shearon blamed poor communications and planning for the accident, and threatened legal proceedings.

Anthony McElvaney, a steel erector for FLB Construction was working with Hayhurst when the accident occurred. He said: "He had both feet on the plywood. I just heard a crash and saw the board tumbling down. He was wearing a hard hat but not a safety harness."

William Ridley, the on-site foreman for FLB said: "He was a confident worker and never had a problem with safety. I would have stopped them working if I knew they were not wearing harnesses."

He added that workers were given a safety induction on site but that he never saw the method statement and risk assessment for the fitting of shims drawn up by Watson Steel.

Kenneth Metcalfe, safety adviser for FLB Construction, said there should have been more inspections to stop the accident from happening, adding: "Hayhurst attended a course last year where safety harnesses were talked about."