A crane company has admitted responsibility for the collapse of one of its machines in Battersea, killing two men nearly 10 years ago.
Picture from the memorial service to commemorate the deaths of two men when a crane fell in Battersea. Jonathan Cloke, 37, was inside the cab of the crane, and Michael Alexa, 23, was struck when the crane collapsed at the Barratt Homes site.
Michael Alexa, 23 and Jonathan Cloke, 37, were killed in September 2006 when a crane collapsed at a Barratt Homes development in Thessaly Road.
Mr Cloke was in the driving cab of the crane when it collapsed and Mr Alexa was cleaning his car in the street below at the time.
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Falcon Crane Hire Limited appeared in Southwark Crown Court today, where the company admitted two health and safety breaches.
In return, the charge against its 71-year-old managing director Douglas Genge was returned not guilty.
The families of both men had to wait six years for the inquest.
When it finally took place the jury blamed management for the deaths after failings in the run-up to the accident were exposed.
In July 2006, four inner slew bolts in the crane had to be replaced but the machine was returned to service without any investigation into the failure of the bolts.
After a week-long hearing in 2012, the jury sitting at Westminster Coroner’s Court detailed a whole series of mistakes by Falcon Cranes that fatally jeopardised the safety of the crane, and highlighted a "vacuum" of structured management in its service department.
Speaking to the Wandsworth Guardian last year, Mr Alexa’s mother, Liliana said: "We still wait for him to come home and come through the door, it is really bad – we will keep fighting to the end."
The body of Mrs Alexa’s son was left under the wreckage for three days as the authorities struggled to remove the broken crane.
A trial date had been set for September this year, but the company will be sentenced on March 15 at Southwark Crown Court.
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