HBG fined £150k after worker killed by concrete lintel

HBG Construction has been fined £150,000 today (Friday) following the death of a construction worker who was struck by a concrete lintel on a £50m City of London building site seven years ago.

The construction company, formerly known as Kyle Stewart, admitted at Southwark Crown Court that it failed to ensure the safety of non-employees after Osman Kamara, 25, was killed on 21 February 1997. It was also ordered to pay £47,000 costs.

Kamara, of Harrow Road, Wembley, who had been employed by HBG sub-contractor, Artisan Contracts, had been one of four men lifting the quarter ton lintel onto a wall on a Scottish Amicable development at 33 Old Broad Street, Moorgate.

As the lintel was being lifted a metal-framed bandstand he was standing on "juddered and wobbled" causing two men to fall to the floor. Kamara was struck on the head, fracturing his skull.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said that subsequent investigation has shown that HBG was "gravely at fault" for the accident.

"It happened not just as the result of some brief oversight but arose out of a series of failures which showed the company fell well short of the adequate standard imposed by health and safety legislation," he added. 

"Even an untrained eye, such as my own, could see that there were obvious inherent problems in dealing with a lintel of such a size and weight.

"The company had completely failed to properly assess this particular job of work, devise a safe method, to train competent operatives, to supervise and to provide proper work tools."

In mitigation HBG said it has "in general a good safety record" and there has been a "substantial delay in the institution of proceedings."

After the case, an HBG statement reiterated its deepest sympathies to Kamara's family.

It added: "Every procedure has now been thoroughly reviewed and, working together with the Health & Safety Executive, all necessary measures have been put in place to ensure that a similar tragic accident should never be repeated."