Higgins Homes on Trial Over Death of Mother Struck by Falling Bricks on School Run

A property developer and four construction workers have gone on trial at the Old Bailey accused of causing the death of a 29-year-old mother who was killed when a pallet of bricks fell from a tower crane onto a pavement in east London, prosecutors have said.

Michaela Boor was walking along Burdett Road in Bow on the morning of 27 March 2018 when the load of bricks came down on her. She suffered a fractured skull and catastrophic brain injuries, and died in hospital two days later, on 29 March. The court heard she had been on the school run at the time of the incident.

Higgins Homes plc, which was both the principal contractor and the designer of a project to build a block of flats at the site, is on trial charged with corporate manslaughter and a health and safety offence. Four men contracted by the company — Thomas Anstis, Stephen Coulson, Dawood Maan and Alexander McInnes — face the same charges. Both the firm and the four individuals deny all the allegations against them.

Opening the prosecution case on Monday, Alexandra Healy KC told jurors that Boor had been walking towards some shops with a friend, Chelsea Mustafa, when the accident happened. Their route took them past the construction site, which was being developed by Higgins Homes. The prosecutor said a pallet of bricks being moved by a tower crane towards a loading bay immediately next to the pavement along Burdett Way fell onto the two women.

According to the prosecution, the pallet caught on scaffolding while it was being hoisted, which caused the bricks to fall. Ms Healy alleged that the crane operator had a restricted view of the load and that the lifting operation turned into what she described as a "blind lift" once the load moved completely out of his sight.

The court was told that Ms Mustafa ran into the road, away from the construction site. Although some bricks struck her on the back and hand, she managed to avoid the bulk of the falling load. Ms Healy said Michaela Boor did not make it off the pavement. She was hit by the falling bricks, which fractured her skull and caused catastrophic brain injuries.

Boor received treatment at the scene before being taken to the Royal London Hospital, but jurors were told her injuries were unsurvivable and she died on 29 March 2018. The case has taken several years to reach trial, and the proceedings at the Old Bailey are expected to examine in detail how the lifting operation was planned, supervised and carried out on the day.

The prosecution alleges that there had been no risk assessment for lifting pallets of bricks so close to members of the public, and claims Higgins Homes had not considered the safety of people outside the site. Ms Healy told the court that Higgins Homes failed to give proper consideration to the protection of the public, a central plank of the case against the company.

The court heard details of the roles played by each of the four defendants. Thomas Anstis, 69, of Banstead in Surrey, was the senior site manager and temporary work co-ordinator, in charge of the building site and overseeing the work of subcontractors. The prosecutor claimed there was evidence showing he cut corners in order to save cost.

Stephen Coulson, 69, of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, was a director of Coulson Lifting Services and was in charge of lifting services. The court was told he was not at the site on the day of the incident. Dawood Maan, 61, of Ashford in Kent, was the crane supervisor responsible for overseeing and supervising lifting operations at the site, while Alexander McInnes, 34, of Islington in north London, was the crane operator.

The charges against the company and the men reflect the multiple layers of responsibility that apply to construction projects of this kind. Corporate manslaughter allegations require prosecutors to show that an organisation's activities were managed or organised in a way that caused a person's death and amounted to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care. Health and safety offences, by contrast, focus on failures to ensure safety so far as is reasonably practicable.

The accident has drawn attention to the risks that major building works can pose to pedestrians who pass sites every day, often with little awareness of the hazards overhead. Lifting operations involving tower cranes are governed by strict planning requirements, including the use of properly trained operatives, clearly defined lifting plans and measures to keep members of the public away from suspended loads wherever possible.

Legal commentators note that so-called blind lifts, in which the crane operator cannot directly see the load, are permitted only when suitable precautions are in place, such as radio communication with a banksman or the use of cameras and other aids. The prosecution's case appears to hinge in part on whether adequate arrangements existed to manage the risks created by operating a crane alongside a busy public pavement.

The trial continues, and the jury is expected to hear further evidence about the planning of the lift, the condition of the scaffolding and the safety culture on the site. Higgins Homes and the four men each deny the charges, and it will be for the jury to determine whether the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.