The aftershocks of a demolition death

A death on a demolition site can have repercussions long after the fatality itself.

When someone is killed within the demolition industry, there is a tendency to focus upon the here and the now; upon the person killed and those that worked alongside them; and upon the company that employed them and that, therefore, had a duty of care for the person that has died.

Those working alongside the person killed might be offered counselling.   Their employer might have questions to answer as authorities begin their investigations.   And hopefully, the family of the person killed will be offered some emotional and financial support.

But each demolition death brings with it aftershocks.   And, like the aftermath of an earthquake, those aftershocks can be devastating.

On Tuesday night last week, I received word that the daughter of John MacKay - one of the two men killed in a demolition accident at the Teesworks facility in Redcar - had herself passed away.   Kirsty was 34 years old.

John MacKay and Tommy Williams died in horrific circumstances at the site in 2019.   Four and a half years later, while Teesworks is lauded as a landmark project, an investigation into the incident remains ongoing.  

Kirsty was just 30 when her father died.   According to John MacKay’s wife, Kirsty never recovered from the loss of her father.  Tragically, she died not knowing how or why her father perished.

Kirsty’s story is not unique.   The brother of Christopher Huxtable, one of the four men killed during the Didcot Disaster almost eight years ago, also died before the resulting investigation could be concluded.

At the beginning of February 2016, Natalie Huxtable had two big brothers to look up to.   Today, she has none.

It would be wrong, of course, to suggest that the demolition industry was in any way responsible for the death of Ann MacKay’s step-daughter or Natalie Huxtable’s other brother.

If anyone is to blame for the additional stress and suffering endured by the families of the deceased, it should be the investigating authorities that have - deliberately or otherwise - dragged their heels for years and needlessly prolonged the agony.

And yet, were it not for demolition, Christopher Huxtable and John MacKay might still be with us.   So might Michael Collings, Ken Cresswell and John Shaw who also died at Didcot; so might Tommy Williams who died alongside John MacKay at Redcar.

In the deaths of John MacKay’s daughter and Natalie Huxtable’s brother, the demolition industry does NOT have blood on its hands.   But those deaths should, most assuredly, be on the conscience of both the demolition industry and of the authorities that claim to police it.