Construction worker and apprentice son died after platform plummeted 14 storeys
A father and son died after the platform they were working on plummeted 14 storeys, an inquest heard. Construction worker David Bottomley, 53, and his 17-year-old son, Clayton, were working on the Unity Building in Liverpool city centre.
The climbing platform on the building at the corner of Chapel Street and Rumford Place fell at around 3.30pm on May 19, 2021. David was pronounced dead at the scene and Clayton died four days later in hospital.
A witnesses described the moment the platform at the 21st floor of the building plummeted 14 storeys onto the roof of the seventh floor during an inquest held today, Monday, September 16. Thomas Blanchfield, who was working in the tower on the business side of the building and witnessed the incident from a meeting room window, said: "I could see David trying to grab something.
"I could see Clayton moving, but I didn't know what he was doing. Then they both came away from the building and grabbed the railing, and both seemed to brace themselves."
He said the platform, which was attached to a mast, began to click "like a rollercoaster" as it gradually dropped, the Liverpool Echo reports. Mr Blanchfield continued: "There was about four to six clicks before it went into free-fall. The noise was like a Catherine wheel or a zip-wire as the basket was in free-fall."
David was pronounced dead at the scene an hour later with his cause of death being "massive blunt force chest injuries". Clayton was taken to the intensive care unit at Aintree Hospital where he died on May 23.
A post-mortem found his cause of death to be a hypoxic brain injury, cardiac arrest, and multiple injuries. Clayton suffered "severe, irreversible and unsurvivable brain damage" in the incident.
Thomas Lowry, another witness from the business side of the Unity Building, said: "The noise made me look out straight away, and I saw the platform suspended against the residential side of the building. The right hand side was about one foot lower than the left hand side. The noises coming from the platform I can only describe as similar to the noises you hear when you're on a rollercoaster. The noises you hear at the very top before you fall."
Shani Tatton witnessed the accident from her kitchen window nearby. She said: "I heard a loud noise. It sounded like something falling at high speed and crashing afterwards. I couldn't even describe the sound. It was like nothing I've ever heard before.
"When I got a chance to look, I looked out the window and saw all the flashing lights and the paramedics around the same two males I had seen earlier. It was then I knew what had happened. The two males were lying on the roof."
Workmen at the scene said "the brakes had failed" on the platform which caused it to fall. Mr 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. David and Clayton were described as 'peas in a pod' by family friends following their deaths.
The inquest is expected to continue all week, with evidence from the Health and Safety Executive, site operators Laing O’Rourke, mast climbing work platform suppliers Adastra Access, and gearbox specialists Nord Gear Ltd.