LONDON (AP) - A British coroner has blamed dangerous working practices for the death of a worker on a 2022 World Cup stadium building site in Qatar.
An inquest heard that Zachary Cox fell nearly 40 meters in January 2017 when a faulty hoist he was using to put a suspended walkway in place broke at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
The 40-year-old Cox’s safety harness snapped under the weight. He fell head first, sustaining brain injuries and a broken neck. Cox was born in South Africa but later lived in England.
Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley told Brighton and Hove Coroner’s Court that site managers “knew or should have known that they were effectively requiring a group of their workers to rely on potentially lethal equipment.”
Hamilton-Deeley described a new system of hoists introduced to speed up construction as “downright dangerous.”
The stadium contractor is Midmac-Six Construct, a venture between Belgian and Qatari firms.
World Cup organizers in Doha say four people employed on the project were removed from their jobs and banned from future tournament work.
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