Glass crush death leads to fines and conviction

Two firms have been fined and an MD handed a suspended prison sentence after a worker died when 17 panes of glass fell from a lorry onto him.

Tawanda Chamwandayita suffered fatal crush injuries when the units of glass tumbled from a shipping container that was being unloaded at a site in Birmingham in October 2017.

A joint investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and West Midlands Police found unloading was not properly planned, supervised or carried out safely.

Evergreen Construction (UK) was appointed as the principal contractor, but it failed to take action to ensure the safety of the workers.

The client, Leyton Homes (Perry Barr), previously known as Hilux Developments Birmingham and Fast Item Residential, had engaged its own contractor to arrange the delivery and unloading of the container full of large and heavy items, including the glass.

The HSE said the principal contractor was on-site but failed to do anything to ensure that the unloading operation was properly planned, appropriately supervised, or carried out safely.

Leyton Homes was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £55,084.67 in costs at Birmingham Crown Court. Evergreen Construction was fined £115,000 and ordered to pay £52,561.96 in costs.

Leyton’s MD, Jalal Rana, was found guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to pay £57,171.95 in costs.