Image source, PA MediaImage caption, Mick Ferris was a coach driver for Clarkes of London, and had been returning to his coach when the window pane fell
A property developer has been fined £1m after a window fell from a luxury riverside penthouse in south London and killed a coach driver.
Mick Ferris, 53, was crushed when the pane of glass weighing 130kg (20 stones) fell 26 storeys from The Corniche in Vauxhall on 2 October 2018.
His wife Rachel Ferris, told the sentencing hearing at Inner London Crown Court that her husband's death "could have been prevented", after it emerged that a window fell from the same development in August 2017, but the design was not substantially changed as a result.
Prashant Popat KC said the developer St James Group Ltd was "deeply remorseful and regretful".
Image source, PA MediaImage caption, Luxury flats at The Corniche, on Albert Embankment, have previously been listed for sale at £3m
The father-of-two was hit by the falling glass as he returned to his coach on central London's Albert Embankment that morning.
Specialist façade contractor Lindner Prater was also fined £300,000, after it and St James were found guilty of ignoring "foreseeable risks".
Luxury architecture firm Foster + Partners and engineering consultants Wintech Ltd were cleared of the same charge.
Judge Boyle said St James should have been more "robust" in "ensuring the critical safety component" of the window was "present and engaged".
He added that Lindner Prater "should have done more to complete and document the risk assessment process".
In addition to the fine, Judge Boyle ordered St James and Lindner Prater to pay costs of £125,000 each.
Image source, PA MediaImage caption, The window panel was roughly 85 x 190cm (2.7ft x 6ft) and weighed 130 kg (20 stone)
Rachel said her husband's death was "so sudden" and "out of the blue".
In a statement read out in court, she said: "If somebody had done something differently – anything – it would have changed our lives. We wouldn't be in this position.
"I know it wasn't just one person, but one person could have changed this."
She added: "What those companies did killed my husband.
"The thought this could have happened to anybody is always with me. It could have been a child."
Ms Ferris told the court that 400 people attended her husband's funeral, and said "he is missed by so many it was unbelievable".
At the time of the incident, television host and fellow West Ham fan James Corden paid tribute to Mr Ferris on Twitter, saying: "He was a huge West Ham fan and has passed away in the most sudden of circumstances."
He added: "Tell your loved ones you love them today."
HSE principal inspector James Goldfinch said: "The fact lessons had not been learnt from a near miss the year before makes what happened on that day all the more galling.
"For a window to fall once was quite extraordinary, for it to fall again was simply criminal."
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