Suspended sentence for site manager after fatal demolition of fire escape in Kassel
The judgment is not yet binding. According to the indictment, the plaintiff and two other men entered the podium through a kitchen window in August 2022 to smoke. The podium with the ladder was located on the facade of the house. It then broke out of its anchoring in the wall and fell. The plaintiff fell from a height of seven and a half meters and sustained injuries.
Now, the builder responsible for the fire escape podium from Lower Saxony had to answer for himself in court. He was accused, according to court records, of being "responsible for inadequate structural stability through the use of insufficient bolts." This allegedly caused the collapse of the construction.
According to earlier police reports, the victim died in a hospital from his severe injuries. The man was 22 years old. One of the other two men was able to hold on to the railing and climb back onto the ladder. He was lightly injured. The third man was also able to hold on to the railing initially, but then fell into the depths as well.
The builder faced a potential imprisonment due to the court's findings, as he was held accountable for the inadequate structural stability of the fire escape podium. Instead of a imprisonment, the court imposed a suspended sentence, partly due to mitigating circumstances. The site manager of the construction project in Kassel was also called to testify in court. The court spokeswoman revealed that the building responsible for the fire escape podium would undergo demotion as a result of the incident. The men who entered the podium on the pedestal were charged with trespassing, but the charges were dropped due to the building's faulty construction.
