Builder died in ceiling collapse after ‘woeful’ safety failures
Firm fined £450k after tragedy during Jewellery Quarter project
A COMPANY has been fined £450,000 for “woeful” safety failures that led to the death of a worker who was crushed beneath a falling ceiling in Birmingham.
Oleksander Rudyy was killed at a building site in the Jewellery Quarter after removing nine tie rods, which provided crucial support to the structure he was demolishing. Birmingham Crown Court heard that the 49-year-old father from Ukraine, known as ‘Sasha’, had not been directly asked to do it, but that his instructions were not communicated to him properly and he was not supervised appropriately. Stonehurst Estates admitted corporate manslaughter and a health and safety offence.
The Sussex-based firm was ordered to pay a £450,000 fine as well as costs of £167,000.
Company director Simon Briggs, aged 61, from the same address in Danehill, admitted a health and safety offence and was sentenced to 23 weeks suspended for 18 months, with 100 hours of unpaid work.
Supervisor Vasyl Bychkov, 45, of Clapham, London, also pleaded guilty to a health and safety offence and was handed a community order with 135 hours of unpaid work. Mr Rudyy was killed on May 8 in 2019. In a statement his wife spoke of her devastation at losing who she described as a “hard-working man... if told to do something, he would do it”. Mr Rudyy had been tasked with dismantling part of a building called the Coal Store at the site in Vittoria Street, which was being redeveloped into apartments. However, he was only supposed to remove bricks because an archway above him could not be taken down by hand.
But Mr Rudyy used an angle grinder to remove the last of nine tie rods causing a solid brick wall and ceiling to collapse on top of him as well as a colleague he was working with.
The latter survived after being quickly pulled out by co-workers but suffered serious injuries and had to stay in hospital for five days.
Mr Rudyy was recovered from the rubble by emergency services about 20 minutes later but he had suffered fatal chest injuries and suffocation. Justice Amanda Yip said: “Clearly they did not appreciate the structural significance of the rods.”
Briggs had described Mr Rudyy as a “good sensible guy and one of life’s willing workers and a trusted employee”.
Likewise, the victim had thought of the director as a “good boss” and his supervisor Bychkov as a friend. Both defendants had since expressed “genuine remorse”, the court was told.
Justice Yip said there was a lack of “proper supervision” from Bychkov and said: “He didn’t have a real idea of what Mr Rudyy was doing. He did not give clear instructions so all workers understood that the demolition had ceased for the time being.”
She added: “The real tragedy is that with proper planning, training and supervision this accident would have easily been avoided.”
Justice Yip said there was “clear evidence of a lack of proper, training and supervision of unskilled workers”.
She concluded that while Briggs had accepted responsibility she remained concerned he had not fully recognised the extent of failure.
Jan Andresen, expert health and safety inspector, found there was an “over-reliance on common sense and verbal communication”.
He described the company’s actions relating to the project Mr Rudyy was working on as “woeful”.
Justice Yip also noted that Stonehurst did not have an “unblemished” health and safety record due to previous prohibition orders, but acknowledged that none of them resulted in a criminal conviction.
Justice Yip