Company admits breaking the law after woman killed by falling wooden panel
A company has admitted breaking the law after a woman was killed by a wooden panel which fell from a shopping centre.
Tahnie Martin was hit by a water tank cover which fell from the roof of the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton during Storm Doris in February, 2017.
The 29-year-old university worker from Stafford was walking past Starbucks on Dudley Street at the time.
This afternoon the company which was responsible for managing buildings appeared at Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court.
Cushman and Wakefield Debenham Tie Leung pleaded guilty to an offence contrary to the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and admitted it failed to discharge general health/safety duty to a person other than an employee.
A directions hearing will take place at Wolverhampton Crown Court on May 8 before a sentence is passed.
Speaking after the hearing, Richard Phillips, senior solicitor for City of Wolverhampton Council, said Tahnie’s parents, Rosie and Jim, had been “shattered” by the loss of their daughter.
Mr Phillips said: “She was a popular, beautiful and ambitious young woman who had a very bright future cruelly stolen from her in the most shocking of circumstances owing to the failings of the defendant, Cushman and Wakefield Debenham Tie Leung Limited.
“City of Wolverhampton Council’s environmental health team carried out a comprehensive investigation, into the circumstances around Tahnie’s death and their diligence has led to this successful criminal prosecution for breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
“We welcome the guilty plea of the defendant, made at the earliest opportunity, which means the family will not have to go through the stress of a trial.”
He said that Tahnie’s death was “preventable” and “simply should not have happened”.
Mr Phillips said: “Had the defendant fulfilled its legal duty to properly maintain the building structures above our main high street, she would still be with her family today.
“It is our hope that this case will highlight to all those responsible for the maintenance of buildings of the need to thoroughly understand what they are responsible for and that buildings are suitably maintained to ensure such a devastating incident never occurs again.”
An inquest in October 2017 heard that the panel, from a mothballed plant room, was rotten with corroded fixings and may not have been maintained for almost 20 years; jurors recorded a narrative verdict.