A British court has fined the country's athletics body £350,000 ($471,600) over the “wholly avoidable” death of a UAE Paralympian who was killed when a practice cage collapsed on his head.
A father of five, Abdullah Hayayei, 36, was preparing to represent the UAE at the World Para Athletics Championships in London when the 440-pound metal structure fell on to him at Newham Leisure Centre, East London, on July 11, 2017.
The 5ft-high cage toppled over because it was put up incorrectly and without its base plate, in an “accident waiting to happen”.
UK Athletics pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter and was fined £350,000 as well as £44,000 in costs, to be paid over six years.
The incident happened five years after UK Athletics had acquired two cages originally used in the 2012 Olympic Games. The cages had never been properly assembled with the base plates attached, the court heard. One collapsed in 2012, but no injuries were reported on that occasion.
Before the fatal incident, the cages had been used at five public events, including anniversary games in Stratford and at Swansea University Stadium.
“Over this period, very many athletes will have been within the cages and many more standing or passing close by,” said prosecutor John Price KC. “It was a perennial hazard, or to use a familiar phrase, an accident waiting to happen.”
Keith Davies, 79, who was head of sport for the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships, admitted a health and safety charge and was sentenced to a community order of 175 hours' unpaid work.
At sentencing, Judge Richard Marks KC said the death of Mr Hayayei was “tragic, untimely and wholly avoidable”.
The judge noted failings by UK Athletics were not a “one off” but said any financial penalty would “weaken” its ability to support individual athletes and athletics in the community.
He told retired PE teacher Davies that he knew, or ought to have known, that base plates were an “integral part” of the cage construction.
Following the earlier collapse of an identical cage, he was “on notice”, and the judge said, “This was an accident which sooner or later was waiting to happen.”
His widow Badriah Hayayei gave an impact statement to the court on the fallout suffered by her and her five children.
“I hope the court takes a just stance against everyone who caused this because what happened was not just a simple mistake but the result of negligence, gross negligence, that could have been avoided if safety procedures adhered to.
“My husband went out to represent his country and raise the name of the UAE but he returned as a corpse because of this negligence.”
The court heard that Mr Hayayei, who had cerebral palsy, had been due to compete in the para athletics shot-put event at the World Para Athletics Championships in Stratford.
Detective Chief Inspector Lucie Card of Scotland Yard described Mr Hayayei as a “talented athlete” whose life “was cruelly cut short by the failings by those who were meant to keep him safe”.
Ms Card said the lead technician of the firm that had manufactured the throwing cage “knew within seconds” of seeing the scene that the equipment hadn’t been erected properly.
“Our investigation demonstrated that for years, the cage, which was donated to UK Athletics after the 2012 Olympics, wasn’t being properly secured by UK Athletics and its representatives,” she said.
“Establishing what failures caused Abdullah’s death has taken years of meticulous work by a committed team of detectives. It is no less than his family deserved.”
Mr Hayayei represented the UAE in the F34 class javelin and shot put at the2016 Rio Paralympic Gamesand was training for the World Para Athletics Championships at the time of his death.
He trained with the Armed Forces as a serviceman in 2001. He fought back from severe injuries suffered during an accident at that time that resulted in severe nerve damage and a disability he then had until his death.
He continued in the Armed Forces after he recovered and became an athlete, going on to represent his country.
When teammate Mohammed Al Hammadi won the UAE’s first medals – a silver and bronze – at the World Para Athletics Championships, he dedicated the medals to Mr Hayayei and gave them to his children.
Paying tribute to him at the time of his funeral, his elder sister Mariam Hayayei described him as a kind, helpful and fun person who took care of their mother after their father died in 1983.
