Mother on School Run Died After Crane-Dropped Bricks Struck Her Head, Old Bailey Told

A young mother was killed when a pallet of bricks being moved by a tower crane fell from height and struck her as she walked along a pavement beside a building site in east London, a court has heard. Michaela Boor, 29, suffered a fractured skull and what prosecutors described as catastrophic brain injuries in the incident on Burdett Road in Bow on the morning of 27 March 2018. She died two days later, on 29 March, at the Royal London Hospital, where doctors were unable to save her.

The case opened on Monday at the Old Bailey, where Higgins Homes is standing trial accused of 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 in Surrey; Stephen Coulson, 69, of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire; Dawood Maan, 61, of Ashford in Kent; and Alexander McInnes, 34, of Islington, north London. Both the company and the four individual defendants deny all the charges against them.

Prosecutor Alexandra Healy KC told the jury that Ms Boor had been walking towards some shops with a friend, Chelsea Mustafa, when the load came down. Their route took them past a construction site being developed by Higgins Homes plc, the court heard. The prosecutor said a pallet of bricks being transported by a tower crane towards a loading bay immediately next to the pavement along Burdett Way fell onto the two women.

According to the prosecution's account, the pallet caught on scaffolding while it was being hoisted, which caused the bricks to break free and drop. Ms Healy said the crane operator, Mr McInnes, had only a restricted view of the load, and that the operation effectively became a "blind lift" once the pallet moved completely out of his line of sight. The incident unfolded in a busy residential area where members of the public were walking only feet away from the hoisting operation.

The court was told that Ms Mustafa ran into the road to escape the falling bricks. Although she was struck on the back and hand by some of the load, she was able to avoid the bulk of it. Ms Boor, however, did not manage to get clear of the pavement. She was hit by the bricks, which fractured her skull. She received emergency treatment at the scene before being taken to hospital, but jurors heard that her injuries were unsurvivable.

Higgins Homes was both the principal contractor and the designer of the project, which involved building a block of flats. The prosecution alleges that no risk assessment had been carried out for lifting pallets of bricks so close to members of the public, and that the company had failed to consider the safety of people outside the site boundaries. "Higgins Homes failed to give proper consideration to the protection of the public," Ms Healy told the court.

The trial also examines the roles played by the four men charged. Mr Anstis was the senior site manager and temporary work co-ordinator, responsible for running the building site and overseeing the work of subcontractors. The prosecutor claimed there was evidence that he "cut corners" in order to "save cost". Mr Coulson was a director of Coulson Lifting Services and had responsibility for lifting services at the site, although he was not present on the day of the incident.

Mr Maan was the crane supervisor, whose duties included overseeing and supervising lifting operations on the site. Mr McInnes was the crane operator at the controls when the pallet was being moved. The prosecution's case centres on the way the lift was planned, supervised and carried out, and on whether those involved took adequate steps to protect people walking past the development.

The accident occurred at a site where large buildings were covered in tarpaulin and scaffolding, photographs from the scene show. Such sites are commonplace in Bow and the wider Tower Hamlets area, where dense residential streets frequently sit directly alongside major construction projects, leaving pedestrians close to heavy lifting operations. The case has raised questions about how construction firms manage the interface between building work and the public.

Corporate manslaughter charges are relatively rare in England and Wales and require prosecutors to show that an organisation's activities were managed in a way that caused a person's death and amounted to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care. Health and safety offences carry their own set of legal tests. The burden falls on the prosecution to prove the allegations against both the company and the individuals, all of whom are presumed innocent unless and until the court finds otherwise.

The trial, which is expected to examine detailed evidence about lifting plans, risk assessments and site supervision, continues at the Old Bailey. The case has been reported in earlier proceedings, when the firm and the men denied killing the 29-year-old mother. Ms Boor's death left behind a family and a community in east London who are now hearing, in court, the full account of how a routine morning walk to the shops ended in tragedy.