Building firm boss ‘no idea’ how boy got onto site, inquiry told

The director of a construction firm has “no idea” how a ten-year-old boy got onto the building site where he died after falling down a manhole shaft, a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) has heard.

Shea Ryan died in July 2020 when he climbed through an unsecured fence on a building site in Drumchapel, Glasgow, and fell 20ft down a manhole shaft.

The inquiry at Glasgow Sheriff Court opened with a reading of a statement from Shea’s mother Joanne Ferguson.

In it she said prior to her son’s death it was “well known” children had been able to get onto the site, and she wanted to know why no action had been taken to prevent this.

She said she also wanted to know who uncovered the manhole, when they did so, and why it had been left uncovered.

She concluded: “We miss Shea every single day … My heart’s broken, and my life will never be the same again.”

The FAI heard evidence from Graeme Clark, joint managing director of RJ McLeod, which was the principal contractor for the construction work at the site, part of a flood alleviation project.

Mr Clark told the inquiry he had “no idea” how Shea was able to get onto the site, or how he had been able to access the manhole.

“He shouldn’t have been able to get in to the site. I have no idea how he was able to get in. He shouldn’t have been able to get in,” he said.

He added “as far as I was aware from the documents” there had been a cover on the manhole weighing approximately 78kg, which, he said, would have been “difficult” for a ten-year-old to lift.

But he agreed with Advocate Depute Nicola Gillespie that the cover “must have been moved somehow” for Shea to be able to access the shaft.

He added: “We had no knowledge of any child on that site up to the date of the incident itself.”

Mr Clark said he first became aware of the incident at about 9am on the morning of July 17, when he was telephoned by the assistant site manager.

He said he immediately travelled to the site, which he had not personally visited before.

“I was there to ensure I was giving support to people, because of the staff on site that day, and hopefully to gain knowledge of the sequence of events that led to the accident,” he said.

He told the inquiry that while he was there, he undertook a walk-around to inspect the fencing and the only damage he could see had been caused by emergency vehicles coming to site that morning.

“The fencing was in place apart from where it had been damaged by the ambulance and the police and fire rescue authorities,” he said.

This area of fencing, he said “had been badly mangled and put to one side. It was, from memory, near the play park”.

Asked about what security arrangements had been in place at the time of the incident, he said there had been “industry-standard fencing” around the site, and CCTV at the site office.

He added that a health and safety officer with responsibility for a number of the company’s sites – it had 23 projects ongoing at the time – would also have visited the site once a week or so to carry out an inspection.

Mr Clark said these security measures would have been decided on following a risk assessment by senior site officials before work started in March 2020.

He said a number of changes to security arrangements were made after Shea’s death.

These included the installation of an extra layer of fencing at the part of the site next to the play park, CCTV on the perimeter fence, motion sensors, and the securing of manhole covers with ballast bags.

He also said a formal process for recording damage to perimeter fencing identified during daily inspections was introduced, which had not existed prior to the incident.

The advocate depute asked him whether the decision to install extra fencing in the area close to the play park was “because you thought the existing fencing wasn’t good enough?”

Mr Clark denied this, explaining that the fencing had been adequate under the risk assessment that was carried out when the site was set up, and that they now had “additional knowledge” that made extra fencing, along with the other measures, appropriate.

Ms Gillespie pressed him on this point, saying he had said he had not known how Shea got into the site: “But immediately you thought you’d put extra fencing in the area next to the play park?”

Mr Clark responded that the company had been aware of the play park when the original security plan was drawn up, and the firm “had a contractual obligation from Glasgow City Council not to fence it off”.

When he was asked why this was, he replied: “You’ll have to ask Glasgow City Council.”

David Swanney, representing Shea’s mother, pressed Mr Clark on failings in the company’s risk assessment process, including the failure to record fence inspections in the period before her son’s death.

He pointed out that damage to the fencing would have been a “sign members of the public were accessing the site”, in breach of the company’s legal responsibilities.

He added that damaged fencing “increases opportunity for members of the public to access the site”.

He put it to Mr Clark: “Do you, on behalf of your company, accept your failures led to the death of Shea Ryan?”

He initially said “no”, but later clarified that the company did accept responsibility for his death in respects of failures in its risk assessment processes.

The company was fined £860,000 in 2023 for failing to secure the construction site.

The Fatal Accident Inquiry into Shea’s death is expected to last until September 9.

The inquiry continues.