Maintenance failings contributed to death of woman during storm

AN “ABSENCE of maintenance” played a role in the death of a pedestrian hit by a rotten building panel torn loose by strong winds, an inquest jury has found.

Jurors were told the section of a water tank cover – similar in size to a dining table – hit Tahnie Martin after falling from the roof of a six-storey building during Storm Doris last February. Following a five-day inquest into the 29-year-old university worker’s death in Wolverhampton city centre, a narrative verdict was returned.

The jury found: “Tahnie Martin was struck by half of a large wooden panel which had broken away from a disused water tank on the roof of the Black Rock building. The large, heavy panel which struck Ms Martin became detached from the plant room roof of the building due to strong winds, caused by Storm Doris. It became detached due to the absence of maintenance which had resulted in bad rot, corroded and defective fixtures.”

In evidence, the inquest heard the panel was blown around “like a piece of paper” for up for 20 seconds, an inquest has heard.

Ms Martin had been walking with Wolverhampton University’s head of marketing Raman Sarpal, who was also knocked to the ground and treated for a leg injury.

Ms Sarpal had described her colleague as a “fab girl” and a good worker.

The pair had been chatting about how windy it was when they were knocked to the ground.

When she next looked across at Ms Martin, Ms Sarpal could see her friend being given CPR.

Ms Martin, from Stafford, who was engaged to be married, was pronounced dead near Wolverhampton’s Mander Centre shopping centre after suffering head injuries.

Emma Whitting, assistant coroner for the Black Country, was told part of the cover, which a witness had described in court as looking rotten, landed in Dudley Street, while a smaller section did not reach ground level.

The coroner is now sending a prevention of future deaths report to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, to address the apparent lack of requirement for surveyors to indicate building areas which have not been accessed as part of a survey.