Deadly silence

On November 28, 2000, a 16-year-old boy who had only just left school to begin work was crushed to death when a 17m-high steel column toppled in the wind and fell on him. Christopher Kesterton died because Conder Structures, the steelwork specialist who designed the building, hadn't told his company, the subcontractor, that the columns could be deadly in the wind conditions of that day.

Three years later, in February 2004, Conder Structures was fined a total of £100,000 at Leicester Crown Court - not only under the Health and Safety at Work Act, but also, more significantly, under section 13 of the CDM Regulations, which hold designers accountable.

The case highlights designers' responsibilities under the CDM Regulations, but it also shows how steelwork designers can get away with inadequate windspeed calculations during erection. The sentencing judge called it "extraordinary".

Conder Structures had contracted a steel erection company to help build a warehouse in Leicestershire. Kesterton was doing some ground work around two 17m-high steel columns. The columns were bolted down at their bases but were otherwise freestanding, and the steel erectors had been unable to fit stabilising wedges between the columns' base plates and the concrete foundation. The steelwork design had been calculated using a windspeed of 25mph, and the lack of wedges significantly increased the forces on the bolts - but Conder failed to warn the steel erection firm that this would happen. The columns began to sway in the relatively moderate wind of 30mph. Kesterton was using a pneumatic breaker when the column started to topple. There was a shouted warning and Kesterton ran, but he could not escape.

Guilty as charged
Conder Structures pleaded guilty, and was fined £60,000 for a breach of section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to ensure the health and safety of non-employees, plus £40,000 under regulation 13 (2) (b), Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994, for failing to ensure that its design included adequate information about aspects of the project, structure or materials which might affect the safety of people carrying out construction work. Conder was also ordered to pay more than £59,000 in costs. It now ensures that cranes are used to support all freestanding columns.

HSE inspector Mark Hatfield said the boy died because Conder Structures had failed to tell the subcontractor about the safe maximum windspeed or the importance of the base wedging.

I find it extraordinary that we came to court with no clear guidelines for the industry

Judge Christopher Metcalfe

"The steel erectors failed to appreciate the consequences of leaving these particular structural steel columns unwedged and freestanding in wind conditions that were quite normal for the time of year," he said.

The HSE investigation also showed a lack of consensus among designers on maximum wind loads during construction involving steelwork. Designers take wind loads of anywhere between 25 and 80 mph as a safe limit.

"I find it extraordinary that we came to court in the first place with no clear guidelines for the industry," said Judge Christopher Metcalfe in sentencing.

Only a handful of designers have ever been prosecuted under Section 13 of the Construction (Design and Management) regulations since they were introduced in 1995.

In a sweep of Scotland and the north of England in March 2003, the Health and Safety Executive found that a third of the 130 designers they interviewed demonstrated little or no understanding of their responsibilities under CDM regulations.