Image copyright Family picture An inquest into the death of a boy who died after a Topshop queue barrier fell on him has heard a girl was injured in a similar incident a week earlier.
The girl, aged 10, fractured her skull on the same barrier type at its Glasgow branch.
Kaden Reddick, from Reading, died after the incident at the town’s Oracle shopping centre in February 2017.
The inquest previously heard the 10-year-old was swinging on the structure before it fell on his head.
CCTV footage of the incident involving Kaden was shown, and also two previous instances at the Reading branch where the barrier was seen to move when leant on by customers.
Alan Prior, former store procurement manager for Arcadia Group which owns Topshop, said there were no guidelines on the weight of the barriers because the floor in each branch was different.
He explained the barrier had originally been designed in metal and would have been bolted to the floor.
But after the supplier went into liquidation in 2012 another firm, Realm Projects, was hired to make similar barriers from medium density fibreboard (MDF).
The barriers, which doubled as a display unit, each weighed 110kg and would have been loaded with products encouraging “impulse” purchases as customers waited in line.
Realm Projects was not involved in the installation of the barriers – that role fell to the shop fitters at each store.
David Renshaw, director of Realm Projects, told the inquest his firm has made 88 barrier units – three of which had gone to the Reading Topshop store.
He said: “It was a totally fit for purpose component that did not fail in any way whatsoever.”
He added the company’s approved design drawings stated the units should be “fixed in place to the floor.”
The inquest continues.
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