The incident happened at around 10.30am on 2 October 2018 when Mick Ferris, 53, had been on a break and was just returning to his coach, which was parked up nearby.
The 130kg window fell 300ft from the Corniche development on the capital’s Albert Embankment killing Ferris instantly.
St James Limited, part of the Berkeley Group, had been the developer of the Corniche as well as the Principal Contractor and Principal Designer.
Lindner Prater Limited was a specialist company engaged by St James to design the penthouse windows.
At an early stage of the design process, the windows had been changed from opening inwards to opening outwards, meaning if they detached, they would fall onto a pedestrian area.
The safety of the windows relied on the performance of a single restrictor, held in by a single screw, and none of the fittings had been confirmed by their manufacturers to be suitable for the bespoke curved penthouse windows.
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In August 2017, more than a year before the fatal incident, a window left open in windy conditions fell from the same penthouses during construction, nearly hitting two workers.
St James Limited led an internal review into the 2017 near miss, but records obtained by the HSE showed key noted areas of concern were not followed up effectively.
It was only after the second fatal incident in 2018 that the windows were redesigned to open inward and the public walking below the penthouses were no longer at risk if a window was left open.
An HSE photo showing the fallen window at the scene
After a five week trial, both St James Limited, of Cobham and Lindner Prater Limited of Reigate, were found guilty of safety offences.
At the Inner London Crown Court on Thursday St James was fined £1m and ordered to pay costs of £125,000 and Lindner Prater Limited was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £125,000.
HSE lead inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers said: “Two companies – widely seen as leaders in their fields failed to respond to an obvious risk, and tragically this cost the life of a man simply going about his day.
“Even after a window had fallen in 2017, luckily just missing workers below, sufficient attention was not given to assessing the risk of the windows detaching and falling if left open in windy conditions. Too much reliance was placed on adding a small sign to the windows, in effect hoping the residents would not forget to close windows.
“The construction industry should pay attention to this tragic case. Principal designers need to pay careful attention to clarifying exactly what services architects, designers, and consultants will provide, and then effectively monitor their performance to ensure related risks are identified and coordinate necessary improvements.
“The investigation assessed the involvement of multiple companies, thousands of documents, and highly complex technical evidence. This was followed by the wait for a trial.
“We are grateful for Mr Ferris’ family’s understanding throughout and hope this outcome brings them some closure.”
An HSE photo showing the height of the penthouse
