Calls to improve safety after death (From Wimbledon Guardian)

Calls to improve safety after death

9:57am Sunday 4th February 2007

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The company which owned the crane that killed Battersea man Michael Alexa after it collapsed and crushed him to death, has had 170 of its cranes taken out of service by the Health and Safety Executive.

The HSE banned Falcon Crane Hire from using them after another of its cranes collapsed in Liverpool, leading to a man's death.

The HSE served a prohibition notice on Falcon on Friday after a worker was killed when a crane owned by the company collapsed in central Liverpool last Tuesday.

Tower cranes owned by the company which have not recently been checked will be removed from construction sites until they have been assessed by safety experts.

Mr Alexa's mother Liliana said: "At present I'm pleased, but they should have done this before. It's disgusting they needed to have more fatalities to take any action."

Mr Alexa, who was washing his car in the street, was killed instantly when the crane collapsed out of the Barratt building site on Thessaly Road.

Its operator, Jonathan Cloke, also died.

Doug Genge, managing director of Falcon Crane Hire said: "We are co-operating fully with the Health and Safety Executive both on the ongoing investigations into the incidents and on the process of inspecting the cranes currently in service."

Mrs Alexa, secretary of the Battersea Crane Disaster Action Group, also called on construction companies using cranes from other suppliers to carry out safety checks on them.

"Every single company which hires these cranes should do the same thing.

"We want crane safety to become law, but building companies have to take measures before then,"she said. Tighter legislation on crane safety came a step closer on Monday when Battersea MP Martin Linton tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons to gather support for an improvement in crane safety standards.

And Barratt Homes, owner of the building site in Thessaly Road, Battersea, where the September accident happened, has agreed to an independent assessment of their cranes on the site. The company has promised independent inspections will take place regularly as work continues.

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