Brothers killed in Watney Market sewer tragedy remembered 22 years on
Relatives lay wreaths on Saturday to remember two teenage brothers and their workmate killed in a freak sewer accident in London’s East End when they were poisoned by hydrogen sulphide gas.
David Richardson, 19, and brother Paul, 17, died in 1990 with 32-year-old Steve Hammond while working in the sewer below Watney Market, off the Commercial Road. Only a fourth member of the work party, 20-year-old Paul Barker, survived.
The boys’ sister, Carol Hammond, is leading the mourners in a minute’s silence at 12.30pm, which will also remember Stephen Reilly who was killed in another accident the year before, on the giant Canary Wharf construction site.
The sewer tragedy led to protests in east London after the construction company involved was fined just �50,000.
At the time, the boys’ father Derek Richardson called for criminal charges. It led to the national Construction Safety Campaign which fought to get Corporate Manslaughter legislation passed in 2007.
You may also want to watch:
The organisation is also holding a national remembrance service at Tower Hill on Saturday, at 10.30am, in addition to the Watney remembrance two hours later, as part of its annual Safety Day commemoration for all workers killed in industrial accidents in Britain.
Most Read
- 1 Cops break Covid-19 rules to have haircuts at Bethnal Green police station
- 2 Murder arrest after woman stabbed to death in Whitechapel this morning
- 3 Lovely Day for Aldgate School picked to sing on Billy Ocean's new single
- 4 Police e-fit expert retiring after 15 years at Bethnal Green
- 5 Fury as family homes vanish when Isle of Dogs landlord converts to bedsits
- 6 Man sentenced after teenage boy groomed on Snapchat to sell heroin
- 7 Covid hero who did charity walk in Bow aged 100 now has vaccine
- 8 Two men arrested after police officers assaulted in Limehouse rave
- 9 Covid vaccination hub opening in Westfield next week
- 10 'Racist consultation' protest rejected on Tower Hamlets street closures as Labour sticks to its manifesto