A heartbroken mother has watched the moment her son was killed in a construction site roof collapse.
Confronting CCTV of the incident that claimed the life of Jonathan Hartshorn, 23, on October 13, 2020 was made public by a Perth magistrate on Thursday.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Court makes deadly roof collapse vision public for first time
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Hartshorn, an apprentice carpenter, was working on the glass roof of Curtin University’s $110 million School of Design and Built Environment when a steel structure partially caved in and he fell about 20m to the ground.
His mate, another tradie, survived the fall but spent almost four weeks in hospital recovering from emergency surgery.
“It was horrible to watch. It was witnessing my son die,” Hartshorn’s mother Susan Chappell said.
The roof came collapsed in October 2020, killing a young tradie. Credit: Richard Wainwright/AAP
The never-before seen vision was released by the courts one day after the contractor Elsdon pleaded guilty to causing the catastrophic incident.
By its own admission, Elsdon fabricated faulty steel frameworks, ignored mandatory compliance testing and failed to employ any qualified welders.
The company faces a maximum fine of $2 million, but no one will face jail time.
Hartshorn’s death fast-tracked changes to WA’s new industrial manslaughter laws, which now include jail time and fines.
The CFMEU said at the time of the incident that concerns had been raised prior to the fatality.
The union has told 7NEWS it is frustrated with the outcome and that a case against a second company, Stantec Australia, was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
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