Higgins Homes Trial Opens Over Death of Mother Struck by Falling Bricks on School Run in Bow

A corporate manslaughter trial has opened at the Old Bailey in London concerning the death of a 29-year-old mother who was killed by a load of falling bricks as she walked along a busy east London street in 2018. The prosecution case, outlined on Monday, alleges that the incident outside a construction site in Bow was the result of systemic failures to protect the public from a lifting operation that should never have placed pedestrians at risk.

Michaela Boor was walking along Burdett Road in Bow on the morning of 27 March 2018 when the accident occurred. She had been making her way towards some shops with a friend, Chelsea Mustafa. The court heard that the two women were simply going about an ordinary morning errand when their route took them past a construction site being developed by Higgins Homes plc. A pallet of bricks being transported by a tower crane toward a loading bay immediately next to the pavement fell onto the pedestrians below.

According to prosecutor Alexandra Healy KC, opening the case for the Crown, the pallet caught on scaffolding as it was being hoisted, dislodging its load. The bricks then cascaded down onto the women as they walked past. Healy described how Mustafa ran into the road, away from the construction site, and although some bricks struck her on the back and her hand, she was able to avoid the majority of the falling load. Boor, however, did not manage to get off the pavement in time.

The court heard that Boor was struck by the falling bricks, which fractured her skull and caused catastrophic brain injuries. She received emergency treatment at the scene and was rushed to the Royal London Hospital, but jurors were told that her injuries were unsurvivable. She died two days after the incident, on 29 March 2018, leaving behind a young family.

The prosecution alleges that the lifting operation was fundamentally unsafe because it placed members of the public directly beneath a working crane. Healy told the court that crane operator Alexander McInnes, 34, of Islington, north London, had a restricted view of the load and that the operation became a so-called "blind lift" when it moved completely out of his sight. A blind lift, in which the crane operator cannot see the load or the landing area, is a recognised high-risk procedure in the construction industry and is supposed to be tightly controlled by banksmen, radio communication, and exclusion zones.

Prosecutors claim there had been no risk assessment for lifting pallets of bricks so close to members of the public. Healy said Higgins Homes had not properly considered the safety of people outside the site boundary, telling the court: "Higgins Homes failed to give proper consideration to the protection of the public." The Crown's case is that the company, as principal contractor and designer of the project to build a block of flats, bore responsibility for ensuring that passers-by were not exposed to danger from construction activity.

Higgins Homes is on trial charged with corporate manslaughter and a health and safety offence. Four construction workers contracted by the company face the same charges. They are Thomas Anstis, 69, of Banstead, Surrey; Stephen Coulson, 69, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire; Dawood Maan, 61, of Ashford, Kent; and Alexander McInnes, 34, of Islington. Both the company and the four men deny the charges. The trial, presided over by a judge at the Old Bailey, is expected to examine in detail the planning and supervision of the lifting operation that morning.

The court heard that Anstis, 69, was the senior site manager and temporary works co-ordinator, in charge of the building site and overseeing the work of subcontractors. The prosecutor claimed there was evidence showing that he "cut corners" to "save cost." That allegation goes to the heart of the prosecution's case: that commercial pressures were allowed to take precedence over the safety of both workers and the public. If the jury accepts that characterization, it could weigh heavily in determining whether the defendants fell below the standards required by law.

Coulson, 69, was director of Coulson Lifting Services and was in charge of lifting services for the project. The court heard that he was not at the site on the day of the incident. That fact may become significant as the defence seeks to establish the limits of individual responsibility for a failure that unfolded on a site he was not physically present at. Maan, 61, was the crane supervisor responsible for overseeing and supervising lifting operations on the site, while McInnes was the crane operator at the controls when the pallet fell.

The case raises broader questions about how construction companies manage risk in densely populated urban environments, where members of the public pass within metres of cranes, hoists, and heavy materials on a daily basis. Under UK health and safety law, principal contractors have a duty to plan lifting operations so that they do not endanger people outside the site perimeter. Lifting operations near public highways are supposed to be governed by documented risk assessments, method statements, and, where necessary, road closures or exclusion zones.

The trial is expected to hear expert evidence on industry standards for crane lifts near public footpaths and on what a reasonable principal contractor should have done in the circumstances. For the family of Michaela Boor, the proceedings are a long-awaited reckoning more than eight years after her death. The case continues.