Gate firm fined after death of boy
01/03/2010
A construction company has been fined £80,000 after a young boy was crushed to death by electric gates.
Nine-year-old Jason Keet died on April 13, 2006 when his head was crushed by gates at the entrance to flats in Balcombe Road, Poole, Dorset.
Faulkner Gates, based in Romsey, Hampshire, had already pleaded guilty and was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £40,000. The firm was charged with breaches under Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work (HSWA) etc. Act 1974.
Bournemouth Crown Court was told that Faulkner Gates helped design and build the gates but did not control the risks that were being created.
The child had reached between the edge of one of the gates and a brick pillar to press a button but his head and upper body were still in this gap when the gates began moving. The opening the child was in narrowed and his head was crushed between the gate and the brick pillar.
Prosecuting Health and Safety Executive inspector Stephen Hanson-Hall said after the hearing: "Had the company undertaken a suitable and sufficient risk assessment, and communicated its findings with the other companies involved in the design and installation of the gates, it is unlikely this tragedy would have happened."