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EFE
Published
Sep 8, 2015
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Hugo Boss fined £1.2 million over a boy's death by an unsecured mirror

By
EFE
Published
Sep 8, 2015

The German fashion label has been fined £1.2 million over the death of a boy who was crushed by a 114 kg mirror in June 2013.


Hugo Boss has beenfined £1.2 million over a boy's death by a 114 kg mirror - FOTO: Jockey Plaza


4-year-old Austen Harris died after suffering severe injuries from the fall of the mirror, which was not attached to a wall at a Hugo Boss pop-up store in Bicester Village, Oxfordshire – heard the Oxford crown court.

The fashion brand admitted offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act
1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

An inquest concluded that the 2.1 metre high mirror should have been secured to a wall at the location.

Austen Harris, who had been playing around the changing-room mirror, was left with irreversible brain damage and died four days later at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

At the hearing, the judge Peter Ross said “it would have been obvious to the untrained eye” that the mirror posed a safety risk, saying it was "nothing short of a miracle" that it had not fallen before.

Hugo Boss posted a public apology on its website on September 2nd, stating that the accident “shocked and saddened” the entire company.

"There are no words the company can use to alleviate in any way the enormous suffering caused to Austen's parents in particular. We offer our most sincere regret and apology," wrote the brand.
 

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