A one year old child who suffered critical injuries when a lamppost fell on him in a West London Street has died.
According to the BBC, police said that they found the baby boy and a woman, 62, outside Chiswick Town Hall at 1030am. The incident occurred near the junction of Sutton Court Road and Heathfield Terrace.
The baby was taken to a central London hospital by air ambulance, unfortunately died from his injuries. The woman remains in a local hospital.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said that the woman was in a stable condition and her injuries are not said to be life threatening.
The responsibility for maintaining the lampposts in the area falls to Hounslow Council and a spokeswoman said: “This is an awful tragedy and our heartfelt sympathies go out to the injured and all their families. The council is co-operating fully with the police and Health and Safety Executive investigations.”
There has been work going on in the area to improve some roads and crossing facilities but no workmen were on site at the time of the accident.
The council will normally look to conduct safety and maintenance checks on areas at regular intervals to see whether any work needs undertaking and there is no suggestion at this point that they have failed to comply with this duty. However, it may be that in undertaking the road works on the area they did not conduct a risk assessment to consider the possibility of the works dislodging or disturbing other items in the area and therefore they may still be deemed liable for the incident occurring.
