“Losing both of them has broken me and I am just not the same person anymore”
Father and son David and Clayton Bottomley died following the accident in Liverpool city centre(Image: Liverpool ECHO)
A mum had to “say goodbye” to her son just days after she lost her husband following a tragic accident on a 21-storey high climbing platform. David and Clayton Bottomley were fatally injured when the platform they were standing on suddenly plummeted from the top of the Unity Building, in Liverpool city centre, on May 19, 2021.
The incident happened at around 3.30pm, when David, 53, and Clayton, 17, were working on the 21st floor of the building. Witnesses described the horrific moment their climbing platform began to click “like a rollercoaster” before suddenly dropping 30 metres to the seventh floor.
Thomas Blanchfield, who was working in the tower and witnessed the incident from a meeting room window, said: “There was about four to six clicks before it went into freefall.”
David died at the scene from massive blunt force chest injuries. Clayton died three days later in hospital from multiple injuries sustained in the fall.
Mobile access hire company Adastra Access Ltd has been fined £200,000 following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation, which found the mast climbing work platform (MCWP), supplied by Adastra Access Ltd had been at the site since 2019. The platform was manufactured by Wuxi Huake Heavy Machinery Company in China.
Following detailed examination at HSE’s Science Division facility in Buxton, investigators discovered the MCWP was not fitted with suitable safety-critical equipment required by British Standards. The platform lacked an electric motor overload system, which should alert users to motor failures requiring immediate investigation.
Examination of the drive units revealed failure of parts in each unit due to fatigue. Had the platform been equipped with proper safety systems, David and Clayton would have been alerted to the motor failure and the equipment taken out of service.
The investigation also uncovered that certificates of conformity provided to Adastra Access Ltd were fraudulent. The company named on the Certificate of Conformity had not conducted any accreditation examinations, verifications, or testing of the MCWP.
Following this discovery, Adastra Access Ltd withdrew their entire fleet of MCWPs from service.
In her victim personal statement, Paula Bottomley, David’s wife and Clayton’s mother, told the court: “Never in my lifetime did I ever begin to imagine having to say goodbye to my son at only 17 years old just days after losing my husband. Losing both of them has broken me and I am just not the same person anymore.”
Their daughter Molly Bottomley said: “On 19 May 2021, my world stopped. I have completed all my GCSEs and A-Levels, attended prom, passed my driving test, got into my first relationship, and moved out into student accommodation, all without my dad and brother, which is absolutely soul crushing.”
Adastra Access Ltd of Middlemore Lane West, Aldridge, Walsall, which is now in liquidation, was found guilty of breaching Section 6(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £200,000, ordered to pay £14,886.01 in costs and a victim’s surcharge of £2,000 at Liverpool Magistrates Court today, August 27.
Retired HM Inspector Christine McGlynn who led the investigation said: “This was an entirely preventable tragedy that has devastated a family and robbed them of a loving husband, father and son.
“David and Clayton Bottomley should have safely returned home to their family at the end of their working day, but they did not due to Adastra Access Ltd’s fundamental failures to ensure the equipment they supplied was safe.
“The company failed to conduct proper checks on safety-critical systems and relied on fraudulent certificates. These failures cost two lives. This case serves as a stark reminder that cutting corners on safety has the most serious consequences.”
Following the investigation, HSE issued a safety alert to the construction industry warning that some MCWPs were not fitted with suitable controls to manage the risk of platforms falling at dangerous speeds.
The prosecution was brought by Senior HSE enforcement lawyer Alan Hughes and paralegal officer Sarah Thomas.