Company fined £1.3m after death of woman who was hit by falling roofing during Storm Doris
A commercial property company has been fined £1.3m after breaching health and safety laws after a woman died when she was hit by falling debris during Storm Doris.
Tahnie Martin, 29, was struck by a wooden panel which had been blown off the roof of the Mander Shopping Centre in Wolverhampton in February 2017.
Cushman Wakefield Debenham Tie Leung Ltd, which was the managing agent responsible for centre maintenance at the time, had already admitted breaches of health and safety rules.
An inquest previously concluded a plant room on top the roof, from which the panel was ripped away, may not have been maintained for nearly 20 years.
At a sentencing hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday (2nd July), Mrs Justice Carr said the company "failed to identify" two brick structures on the plant roof.
CCTV footage from the time of the incident showed how many other people had passed through the area before the incident, including 88 adults, three teenagers and 10 children.
The firm has previously apologised to Miss Martin's family, and another woman who was also injured by the falling debris, and was a work colleague of Miss Martin.
Today her mother Rosie Martin told the company that '“there is nothing you can say to us, your words are meaningless”.
A full inspection of the surrounding roof space carried out after Miss Martin'sdeath found "over 50 recommendations for urgent action, which otherwise had health and safety implications".