Developer fined £1m after window killed coach driver

Property developer St James Group Ltd was fined £1m after a window fell from a luxury penthouse in Vauxhall and killed a coach driver. Mick Ferris, 53, died on 2 October 2018 when a 130kg window fell 26 storeys from The Corniche development. Specialist façade contractor Lindner Prater was fined £300,000 after both companies were found guilty of ignoring foreseeable risks.

Mr Ferris was returning to his coach on Albert Embankment when he was struck by the falling glass. His wife, Rachel Ferris, told the sentencing hearing at Inner London Crown Court that her husband's death could have been prevented. She noted that a window had fallen from the same development in August 2017, but the design was not substantially changed as a result.

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Judge's remarks on safety failures

Judge Boyle stated that St James Group Ltd should have been more diligent in ensuring the critical safety component of the window was present and engaged. He added that Lindner Prater should have taken further steps to complete and document its risk assessment process. Foster + Partners and Wintech Ltd, an architecture firm and engineering consultant respectively, were cleared of the charge of ignoring foreseeable risks.

In addition to their fines, St James Group Ltd and Lindner Prater were ordered to pay costs of £125,000 each. The Health and Safety Executive's principal inspector, James Goldfinch, commented that the failure to learn from a near miss the previous year made the incident particularly unacceptable. He described the window falling once as extraordinary, but for it to happen again as criminal.

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Mrs Ferris told the court that her husband's death was sudden and unexpected. She stated that if different actions had been taken, their lives would not have been altered so drastically. She added that the actions of the companies involved had killed her husband, and expressed concern that such an incident could happen to anyone, including a child.

Mr Ferris, a father-of-two and a keen West Ham fan, was remembered at his funeral by 400 attendees. Television host James Corden also paid tribute on social media, urging people to tell their loved ones they love them.