Car park death: Asda prosecuted

Father-of-three Kenneth Farr, who was 37, of Shakespeare Avenue, died when the unsecured barrier smashed through his car windscreen in the car park of the store on Ferry Road in May 2002.

Asda is being taken to court in August by Cardiff Council for alleged breaches of health and safety laws.

Mr Farr's widow Helen said she welcomed the news of the prosecution.

She said: "I am pleased that Cardiff Council have done what the Crown Prosecution Service would not - bring charges."

In March last year, an inquest jury at Cardiff Coroner's Court decided that Mr Farr had been unlawfully killed.

A spokesperson for Cardiff Council confirmed that proceedings for alleged offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 are to be taken against Asda Stores Ltd.

The spokesperson said: "These charges are in respect of the fatal accident that occurred to Kenneth Farr at the Cardiff Bay store on 14 May, 2002, when a horizontal swing barrier gate hit Mr Farr's vehicle as he was driving into the store, causing fatal injury.

"Informations have been laid at Cardiff Magistrates' Court and the Company will be summoned to appear before Cardiff Magistrates' on August 20, 2007, to answer the charges laid."

Mr Farr, an electronics engineer who had gone to the store to buy a garden shed, was travelling with his three-year-old daughter at the time. She was unharmed.

He was hit on the head when a swing steel barrier was blown into the path of his car by a gust of wind as he drove into the car park.

A spokesperson for Asda said: "It goes without saying that we are still deeply saddened by Mr Farr's death.

"We take health and safety very seriously indeed, and as a result we removed every similar barrier of this kind.

"While we appreciate that this is little comfort to Mrs Farr and her family, we won't use these barriers again."