Dad and toddler just inches from death
Pair almost crushed after scaffolding at Trident House collapses
A FATHER and his toddler were inches away from being crushed when scaffolding collapsed around them in Hayes.
Guy Beggs, 34, from Manchester was in town with his two-year-old son Lennon to visit a family member.
They were walking up Station Road, pulling a suitcase, when scaffolding around Trident House – Galliard Homes’ development of apartment suites – toppled in a ‘domino wave’ on Wednesday, September 30.
A shocked Mr Beggs told the Gazette: “The scaffolding collapsed just inches away from us. It fell into the middle of the street.
“To be honest I thought a bomb was going off it made that much of a noise and then I remember looking into the street and seeing all the cars swerving out of the way. I looked across to see the scaffolding that had fell down and it was like a wave – each bit just dragged the other bit down.
“I was actually sick to be honest, I didn’t know what was going on.
“A couple of people got out of their cars and asked if anybody was trapped. There were a couple of really nice people making sure there were nobody underneath it.”
Mr Beggs, who works as manager for a maintenance company, said ‘a few choice words’ to one of the workmen.
He went back to a nearby restaurant where he had said goodbye to his aunt and asked her to hold his son while he ‘got himself together’.
A bystander approached and told Mr Beggs he had been extremely lucky, adding: “I saw it all. You were very, very close, the both of you.”
Mr Beggs took a taxi to Euston wanting to get his son home safely and quickly. He said: “I’ve had to go to the doctors because I keep re-living it. I want to know why me and my son were nearly killed.
“It was on a busy high street, it should be more than safe. There could have been 100 people on that pathway.”
The Metropolitan Police said it took six hours to clear the road.
A spokesman added the investigation is with the Health and Safety Executive, which is making ‘preliminary enquiries’.
Galliard Homes, which hopes to complete the apartments by early 2016, declined to comment.