Builders heard 'whistling' then a 'bang' as dad and son fell to their deaths

A worker who was on the building site at the time a dad and son died said he heard a "whistling" sound before a bang when the lift they were standing on failed. David Bottomley, 53, and his son Clayton, 17, who was his apprentice, were working on the Unity Building, on the corner of Chapel Street and Rumford Place, when the platform suddenly dropped 14 storeys from the top of the city centre building at 3.30pm on May 19, 2021.

During an inquest into the deaths today (Tuesday, September 17) at Liverpool Coroners Court, eyewitnesses described the horrifying moment the platform at the 21st floor of the building dropped to the seventh floor, with several men working on the site describing the horror they witnessed. Richard Hughes, a scaffolder who was on site the day the incident took place, said: "I heard a loud noise, it was like a firework, a loud whistling noise. I’ve stood up as it’s coming down really quick. It lasted about three seconds."

Mr Hughes told the jury how when he made his way to the mast climber lift, he discovered Clayton who was moving before seeing David who was not. He then went back to Clayton after seeing David was unconscious, and stayed with the teen until the ambulance arrived.

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Another member of staff on the site was Jason Whitely, who was in a the lift to the left of David and Clayton, and was replacing water seals on the windows of the building. He told the inquest: "I remember we were on our way down and I was at the side where David and Clayton was, on the right-hand side, and all I remember is hearing the mast [climber], it was a bit like a zip wire, I heard it coming down then I saw it come past us really fast and I remember looking over the side. I never actually saw it land and looked over the side and saw David, I never noticed Clayton."

Holding back tears, he told the inquest how the dad and son had been a couple of floors above him and he was one of the people at the scene who rang an ambulance while on his way down in the lift with colleague James McGuinness

It was previously heard that David Bottomley had "significant injuries" and "he didn't look as if he was breathing". Paramedic Jack Watson, who lived the Unity Building, checked Mr Bottomley but was unable to find a pulse in his neck.

Ambulance services quickly arrived, and paramedics turned their attention to Clayton, who was taken to Aintree Hospital in a critical condition. David was pronounced dead at the scene, while Clayton died of his injuries four days later. He donated his heart, kidneys and liver.

Mr Whitely explained that at the time of the incident there were "four or five" mast climber lifts on site that all worked the same way, being operated with three buttons - up, down and emergency stop - and were checked they were functional every morning. The lifts were checked in more detail by Adastra Access, the company that provided the lifts for the work, every six weeks.

At the time of the incident, there were 20-25 members of staff working on both the residential and commercial sides of the buildings divided into two or three men teams, Geoffrey Northern, director of Selby AAI, a construction company contracted by site operators Laing O'Rourke, told the inquest.

After hearing a "bang and an almighty crash", Mr Northern made his way to the seventh floor from the 17th floor. Speaking about when he arrived at the lift, he said: "I went over to David and stroked his head. Someone came over in a machine asking for towels and gloves and to go get them. I went off to get some towels and whatever I went down to the basement in the compound and by the time I got back the paramedics had come and taken over."

Following the deaths of David and Clayton, all mast climber lifts were removed from the site and replaced with lifts from another company, Andrew Swindles, the health and safety manager at Laing O'Rourke, told the inquest.

Unity Building workmen told Merseyside Police "the brakes had failed" on the platform, causing it to fall. David Bottomley, from West Yorkshire, had been working on the building for 18 months as a sub-contractor for AAI Selby, a construction company contracted by site operators Laing O'Rourke. Clayton had been working onsite for six months as he completed an apprenticeship with his dad's company.

The inquest is expected to continue all week, with evidence from the Health and Safety Executive, site operators Laing O’Rourke, AAI Selby, mast climbing work platform suppliers Adastra Access, and gearbox specialists Nord Gear Ltd.