The four men who tragically died while working on the Severn Bridge
| Published date | 12 September 2021 |
| Publication title | WalesOnline (Wales) |
Retired construction manager, Pete Neale, knew three of the men and helped co-ordinate the rescue at at the time.
Read more:
"To have worked with three of these men at the time and have coordinated the rescue when the gantry fell, I have always felt a personal attachment," Peter said.
"There was little we could do for the men that were working on the gantry at the time, although the SARA lifeboat did amazingly pluck one man from the river."
Plans were completed for a major strengthening of the bridge in the late 1980s, and in 1986 a contract was awarded to John Laing Construction to carry out the works with Flint and Neil Partnership as the Design Consultant. The extensive works were carried out over a period of years.
While carrying out the project, three men lost their lives. In the year that it was completed, a fourth man lost his life while carrying out work a separate project.
John Cornelius Short was part of a team of steel erectors who were working in the Beachley Downstream tower installing temporary platforms in advance of the steel tube erection.
John -or Shorty as he was known to his friends -tragically fell during work to replace a lift in one of the towers on January 18 1989. He was 42 when he died.
From Caldicot in Monmouthshire, John was well known in the area, playing for Caldicot RFC. Following his death, a memorial match was arranged in his honour, with a number of Welsh Internationals playing in the teams. Several hundred people turned up to watch the match.
Robin Chester Phelps, 43, from Brockweir, Gloucestershire, and 46-year-old Eric Alan Sullivan, from Tintern, Monmouthshire, were in a maintenance gantry on the underside of the bridge deck when it fell into the river on 4 September 1990. Another man on the gantry at the time survived the 165ft fall.
On September 4, 1990, a team of painters and an inspector were working on behalf of Avon County Council, the bridge maintenance organisation, from one of the new gantries.
An experienced inspection technician, Eric had worked both throughout the UK and overseas, and had enjoyed a particular contract with his family in Zambia prior to starting work on the bridge. He left a wife and two young boys.
Kevin John Hoskins, 34, from Patchway, Bristol, lost his life in an incident in one of the towers on the Aust side on...
To continue reading
Request your trial