A teenage apprentice carpenter was crushed to death while she was working on a property renovation, a court has been told. 18-year-old Chloe Bidwell, of Trearddur Bay, Anglesey, was working on her own in a residential property when a stack of unsecured wooden boards fell onto her.
Each board weighed up to 30kg. Her body was discovered at the property when she failed to return home that day and hadn’t replied to text messages.
Now, the property management firm the teenager was working for has been given a £50k fine and its director has been given a suspended jail sentence after admitting health and safety failings, reports WalesOnline.
After the sentencing hearing, Miss Bidwell’s mother said the fact her daughter had died alone was something that causes her family “unbearable pain”. She urged all employers to “truly consider the responsibility they hold” for the lives of the people they employ.
Llandudno Magistrates Court was told that Miss Bidwell had been working on her own on a renovation project at a house on Deiniol Road in Bangor on December 20, 2023, when the tragedy happened.
The court was told that a mixture of board materials had been stacked vertically and had been left unsecured against a wall in the house.
It is believed Miss Bidwell may have been trying to retrieve a plywood board from the stack when some of the boards fell on her, crushing her neck and causing fatal injuries.
Chloe Bidwell(Image: Coleg Menai)
The court was told there were 28 boards in total, all of which were of large dimensions and potentially weighing up to 30kg each.
There had been no attempt to secure the boards in their upright position and the risk of them falling had not been identified.
A probe by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Varcity Living Limited failed to provide safe systems of work and failed to provide adequate information, instruction, training and supervision so far as was reasonably practicable. The investigation also found that these failures were attributable to the neglect of director David Horrocks.
The court was told that investigators found there was inadequate site supervision, no suitable lone working policy or procedure, no suitable policy or procedure for the storage of board materials, and inadequate risk assessment prior to the incident.
Varcity Living Limited, of High Street, Bangor, pleaded guilty to breaching sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was fined £50,000 and was ordered to pay £10,080 in prosecution costs.
David Horrocks, of Felinheli, pleaded guilty to breaching section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. He was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison suspended for two years and ordered to pay £7,886 in costs.
Speaking after the sentencing Chloe’s mother, Clare Stephenson-Brown, said: “Chloe was only 18, full of life, energy, and determination.
“She had so many talents and dreams: a skilled joiner, a rugby player, a surfer, a skydiver, and a young woman who was about to travel the world and begin her journey towards becoming a firefighter. She was wise beyond her years, brave, and incredibly grounded.
“Chloe died instantly and alone. The fact that she was by herself in those final moments is something that causes us unbearable pain and something we will carry forever. Knowing how full of life she was and how much she had yet to experience makes her loss impossible to accept.”
Ms Stephenson-Brown said that, as a family, they feel Chloe was let down in work, and that because of that they had lost her forever.
She said: “We just hope that those responsible truly understand the enormity of what has happened, not only the loss of Chloe’s life but the devastation caused to her family, her friends, and her community.
“As a family, we hope this case is not viewed simply in terms of the outcome in court but as a stark reminder of the real human cost behind it. The impact of losing Chloe reaches far beyond any sentence and will stay with us forever.
“We urge employers to look beyond compliance and truly consider the responsibility they hold for the lives in their care. Safety must be meaningful in practice, ensuring risks are properly managed, lone working is safe, and that everyone who goes to work returns home.” Join the North Wales Live WhatsApp community group where you can get the latest stories delivered straight to your phone
HSE inspector Rachael Newman said Miss Bidwell was a young apprentice joiner at the very beginning of her career and had every right to expect that her employer would take the basic steps needed to keep her safe at work, and she said her family had every right to expect that when Chloe went to work that day she would return home to them again.
She said: “The tragedy of Chloe’s death is made all the more jarring because it was so wholly avoidable. Apprentices should not be working alone on a construction site, and Chloe died in circumstances which should never have been able to happen.
“Chloe’s employer, Varcity Living Limited, had no safe storage system in place for the dangerously heavy boards which were stacked upright and completely unsecured. Furthermore, they had failed to provide the necessary information, instruction, training, and supervision for their young apprentice.
“Today’s result cannot bring Chloe back, but we hope the sentence handed down brings some solace to her family, whose lives carry on without her. They remain in our thoughts and we offer them our deepest condolences.” Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox