17 May 2010
City of London Corporation comments on Holmes Place and Thyssen
Krupp sentencing
Holmes Place Health Clubs Limited and Thyssen Krupp Elevator
Ltd. were each fined £233,000 on Friday 14 May at Southwark Crown
Court after earlier pleading guilty to a number of health &
safety offences in a prosecution brought by the City of London
Corporation. Costs of £170,000 and £205,000 respectively were also
awarded against them.
They were prosecuted following a fatal accident at the Holmes
Places Health Club on the Broadgate complex in March 2003, in which
Katarzyna Woja was crushed between the lift car and the lift shaft
after becoming trapped in the door way as the lift inexplicably
descended as she was still exiting.
An exhaustive investigation by Environmental Health Officers
from the City of London Corporation, assisted by the City of London
Police and a number of experts from the Health & Safety
Executive, the Health & Safety Laboratory and the lift industry
failed to identify a definitive cause for the lift’s errant
behaviour but uncovered a multitude of poor management practices
leading to the breaches of health & safety law for which the
two defendants were prosecuted.
In her summing up before sentencing, HHJ Debora Taylor said that
there had been a “systematic failure in management” and “no proper
system of work for highlighting failures” despite Holmes Place’s
“unblemished prior safety record” and that the lift “should have
been taken out of service until the fault was identified”.
She also found “systemic failures in Thyssen Krupp” in that
their documented and quality assurance systems were not followed as
they “failed generally” to deal with the lift.
The accident was felt by her to be “highly foreseeable” and was
due to the “complacency of both defendants”.
Philip Everett, Director of Environmental Services for the City
of London said:-
"After a determined and painstaking investigation, we are glad
that those whose behaviours led to this tragic accident have been
made to answer for their actions or rather, inaction.
"Both companies were guilty of not ensuring that their employees
and their agents were fully aware of the consequences of failing in
their responsibilities to manage and maintain the lift. In not
dealing with the lift’s well-established erratic, and ultimately
deadly operation, the situation was allowed to go unchecked for
many, many months. Employees and contractors simply went about
their work unsupervised.
"Health & safety management is about both making sure the
right checks and balances are in place and that they are actually
working. Tragically for the deceased and for her family, in this
case they clearly were not.
"We always favour working with businesses and through advice and
support, helping them improve their performance and legal
compliance. However, we are also determined that if serious
contraventions of duty placing people at risk are encountered, we
will prosecute if in the public interest to do so.
"Finally, on behalf of the City of London Corporation, I would
like to express my thanks to all my officers who were involved in
the investigation and to our legal team and to all our experts and
I would wish to reiterate our deepest sympathy to Ms Woja’s family
and friends for their loss."
Ends
Notes for editors
About the case
Holmes Place pleaded guilty to offences contrary to
Section 2 - failure to protect the health & safety of
persons in their employment;
Section 3 - failure to protect the health & safety of persons
not in their employment
of the Health & Safety At Work Etc. Act 1974 and
Regulation 5 of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment
Regulations 1998 – failure to prevent people being trapped and
crushed by a lift.
Thyssen pleaded guilty to one offence under Section 3 (failure
to protect the health & safety of persons not in their
employment)of the Health & Safety At Work Etc. Act 1974
About the City of London Corporation
The City of London Corporation, which provides local government
services for the ‘Square Mile’, the financial and commercial heart
of Britain, works nationally and internationally to maintain and
enhance the City as a world-leading international financial and
business centre. Its other special responsibilities and
services to London and the wider UK include the Barbican Centre,
Tower Bridge
(www.towerbridge.co.uk),
the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey, 10,000 acres of ‘open
spaces’ including Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest, three
wholesale food markets, two inner-London City Academies, the City
Bridge Trust and acting as London’s Port Health Authority. The Lord
Mayor of the City of London works extensively at home and
abroad to promote the City.
Press contact:
Sanjay Odedra
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7332 1835
Mob: 07831 542 856
Email:
sanjay.odedra@cityoflondon.gov.uk