Woman crushed as pallet of bricks falls 70ft from crane
A WOMAN was fighting for her life last night after being crushed under a pallet of bricks which fell nearly 70ft from a crane as she walked past a building site. Passers-by rushed to help the 28year- old as she lay unconscious on the pavement yesterday morning amid bricks and broken wood. The debris, from a luxury flats development, fell seven storeys and landed on top of her. Paramedics were called to the scene in Mile End, east London, at 9.30am and took the woman to a nearby major trauma hospital with severe injuries. A man was also taken to hospital with shock. Alan Harris, 72, who alerted the emergency services, said: ‘There was a loud bang and I looked around to see a woman pointing skywards, screaming for an ambulance. She was hysterical. I then saw a woman laid out beside her. ‘Within five minutes there were five or six police cars and ambulances. It looked to me like the wooden pallet holding the bricks had snapped from about 16ft above the seven-storey building itself.’ Mr Harris, who owns Revolution Karting which faces the development, added: ‘From a health and safety point of view it never should have happened. It was lucky there weren’t more people.’ Ali Nash, 25, from Hackney, was driving to work when he heard ‘seven or eight loud bangs’. He said: ‘At first I thought it sounded like a man with a gun. I panicked and everyone was scrambling to get away. As I looked around I could see there were still bricks spilling out from the crane.’ Police said the woman, who has not been named, was in a critical condition and her family have been informed. The crane was working on Bow Corner, a development of 19 apartments. The crane’s wooden basket appeared to have broken and the cargo net which held the bricks was ripped open. Mile End councillor Shah Alam, who lives a few doors from where the accident took place, said that following the horrific incident he has raised health and safety concerns with Tower Hamlets Council. He said: ‘They have been working here for eight months but they have never had any hazard notices or barriers to protect people. ‘There were no staff present while the crane operated overhead. There are three primary schools nearby, a nursery, a church and a mosque. My neighbour doesn’t feel safe walking her children to school.’ Orfhlaith Mimhorda, 37, who lives on Burdett Road where the woman was crushed, had just dropped her two-year-old daughter at a nursery when she came across the shocking scene. She said: ‘There are 90 children who go to the nursery. It could have been them. It missed them by half an hour.’ The Health and Safety Executive said their inspectors attended the building site yesterday and were working with police to investigate what had happened. The Bow Corner development is owned by Higgins Homes and offers one, two and three bedroom flats at prices starting from £435,000 with a communal roof terrace giving ‘stunning views across the city skyline’. Planning permission was granted by Tower Hamlets Council in March 2016. Steve Boreham, the construction director of Higgins Homes, said: ‘Our primary thoughts and concerns are with the lady who has been injured and those affected. We are working with the Health and Safety Executive who are investigating the incident to determine the cause and will release more information as soon as it’s available. Our priority at the moment is of course to make the area safe.’ Last night forensics officers were at the scene and hundreds of broken bricks could be seen scattered across the road which was closed to traffic and pedestrians. The Metropolitan Police issued an appeal for witnesses. The force said in statement: ‘A 28-year-old woman has apparently been struck by debris falling from a building site crane. ‘She was taken to an east London hospital where she remains in a critical condition.’