Emergency services battled for more than two hours to free a construction worker after he became trapped under a collapsed wall in Norfolk yesterday Monday 19 March 2012.
Ambulance workers said the victim was “lucky” to have escaped with a broken arm and shoulder.
The wall collapsed on top of him while he was working from a pit in Mount Street, Cromer.
The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) was called at 2.20pm and sent members of its Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) as well as ambulance crews and the East Anglian Air Ambulance.
Ambulance staff and fire crews worked together in difficult circumstances to free the man, who was trapped from the waist down, while he was treated on scene before being flown to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Nicolas Smith, an EEAST Assistant General Manager, said: “Crews across the emergency services co-ordinated together to carry out an excellent job in a very challenging environment and ensure this man’s injuries were not worse than they were.
“He was lucky to have only sustained the injuries he did given the circumstances. We wish him all the best for a good recovery.”
Source – Construction Enquirer
LST Comment: Lucky is the word; collapsing walls generally kill. The CDM 07 regulations clearly mention stability of structures and work in or around excavations. Consider conducting a Site Specific Risk which encompasses all work areas, be these new, or ones that are returned to, looking for changes in the work place and process and the site layout, additionally excavations must be inspected by a competent person at the start of every shift; ie this requires inspections to be made each and every time the excavation is returned to, eg staff have returned from lunch or a coffee break. Excavations should never undermine the foundations of any wall or building without agreed methods for shoring being designed and adopted.
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