Real Life Near-Miss Tragic Accident
The Day I Very Nearly Killed Somebody
Narrowly Averted Tragedy in the Workplace
Split seconds and/or scant millimetres one way or the other and she’d have been dead. How did it happen and what was my central role?
I’m 25 years old working on a building site in South London.
It’s 1984, so you can imagine that although Health & Safety regulations exist, they’re not of today’s standards and not rigidly followed.
The foreman tells me to clear off any loose items or equipment from the scaffold before it’s taken down. No problem. I’m a labourer. The building is an ugly five-storey block of flats the company has been refurbishing. It’s a contentious project with the residents still in situ and lots of complaints filtering through from the Greater London Council.
I start at the top of the scaffold, bagging up random bits of wood, rubble and other debris. At the front of the building — still on the highest lift of the scaffold — I come across an open cardboard box containing scaffold anchors. These are large metal eye-bolts that get screwed into the wall of a building and then attach to the scaffold. The box contains about eight of the anchors. They’re substantial; they weigh several kilos each.
