FAI hears manhole where boy died should have been checked

A senior official on a building site where a 10-year-old boy died after falling down a manhole has told a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) "we should have checked" it was safe. Shea Ryan died on July 16 2020 when he climbed through an unsecured fence on a building site in Drumchapel, Glasgow, and fell 20ft down a manhole shaft.

Stuart Laurence, the deputy site agent, told the inquiry at Glasgow Sheriff Court, staff should have checked manhole MH22 was safe when his firm became responsible for it at the start of July 2020.

MH22 was part of the Garscadden Burn Area (GBA) of the site which had been operated by a company called ABV until July 3 2020, when RJ McLeod, which had been putting in drainage works at the rest of the site, took on responsibility for it.

A central question in the inquiry has been how Shea was able to access the unfinished manhole in which he lost his life.

Mr Laurence told the inquiry the first time he saw MH22 was after the GBA takeover on July 3: "I know it didn't have a layer of engineering bricks on it so from that I know it wasn't finished."

He said he could see it was just the metal lid on top of the "biscuit", the metal ring at the top of the shaft on which the lid sits.

He said it would have been "obvious at a glance" whether a manhole was finished or unfinished.

The civil engineer explained an "unfinished" manhole would be covered by a concrete structure with a cast iron lid weighing approximately 80 kilogrammes.

The lid, he said, would need "two guys" to carry it, but that "a grown person could maybe push it".

He added that he "wouldn't think" that a 10-year-old child would be able to move it.

He said a finished manhole would have a metal structure concreted in place, topped with a 60-70kg metal lid that required special tools to open.

Asked about whether a risk assessment had been done on MH22 following the takeover, Mr Laurence replied "There wasn't a risk assessment for the manhole because we didn't build it."

Pressed on whether there should have been one, he replied: "In hindsight, yes, there should have been."

A risk assessment of July 6 relating to GBA did flag up a risk of injury to the public because of manholes, but Mr Laurence said this did not relate to MH22, which he said did not form part of RJ McLeod's works.

He said the only risk assessment on MH22 would have been to check the lid was secure.

He said when he first saw it from 10 metres away he could see "industry-standard materials" had been used and his "understanding was the metal lid was heavy enough (that) it was secure".

However, he said to his knowledge nobody had checked it was bolted down, and no formal risk assessment had been carried out or documented anywhere.

"If we took it over from another site we should have checked that it was complete, more formally than we did - or I did, anyway," he said.

Asked about whether the manhole would have been opened at any point between July 3 and the accident, Mr Laurance said RJ McLeod staff would have had no reason to open it, and that he was not aware of anyone having done so.

Earlier, the inquiry heard MH22 was part of an entirely separate drainage system from the one RJ McLeod was working on, so did not form part of their work.

Mr Laurence said the last time he had seen MH22 before the accident the lid was properly in place, and that "from everybody I spoke to the lid was on, that's all I know".

However, he agreed with procurator fiscal depute Nicola Gillespie it "must have been taken off for Shea to fall in, or go in and slip".

He said he had spoken to colleagues after the accident and said "we were always wondering how it happened".

The inquiry also heard evidence from Robert Van Beek, the contracts manager with RJ McLeod at the time of the incident.

The inquiry heard there had been five reported instances of unauthorised access on GBA prior to the takeover on July 3, which were reported to the police, but that RJ McLeod had been unaware of these.

These saw fence panels damaged, young people climbing on site machinery and appearing to play with tools, and a security guard being attacked.

David Swanney, representing Shea's mother, Joanne Ferguson, reminded Mr Van Beek that RJ McLeod had implemented extra security measures after Shea's death.

These included, the inquiry heard earlier, additional CCTV, motion sensors, and a formal process for recording damage to the perimeter fencing around the site.

Mr Swanney asked Mr Van Beek: "If you were aware of the unauthorised access incidents between April and June 2020, you would have implemented those measures before you took over the site on July 3?"

The 62-year-old replied that had they known about the incidents they would have put in "a more active form of security" including CCTV cameras and additional fencing, as the GBA would have been considered "high risk".

Mr Van Beek also said he had discussed site security before the takeover and that he had visited the site on July 2 when the fencing looked to be intact and complete.

The inquiry continues.

Hear the latest news on Clyde 1 on FM, DAB, smart speaker or the Rayo app.