Boy, 12, breaks arm playing on building site

From the archive, first published Tuesday 21st Feb 2006.

A warning is being sent out to children to keep off building sites during the half-term holiday after accidents involving two young trespassers.

The accidents happened on a site in Holme Wood, owned by developer Arundale Homes, earlier this month.

Today, a spokesman for Arundale gave a strong warning to parents to make sure their youngsters stay off the site.

He said: "We ask that parents keep proper control of their children so that accidents can be avoided."

Rhys Smith, 12, of Kennerleigh Walk, Holme Wood, fractured his arm in an accident after he squeezed through a gap on the building site on Thorn Royd Drive on February 13.

The accident came 11 days after firefighters had to rescue a ten-year-old girl who got stuck waist-deep in mud on the same site while playing with friends.

Rhys was injured when breeze blocks from one of the houses he had climbed on to fell on his chest and leg.

Although mum Sharon Smith, 43, agrees that Rhys should not have been on the site in the first place, she said the developer needed to take some responsibility in securing it.

She said: "He snuck on to the site quite easily. They did not have to climb over anything or bring anything down. They just found a gap.

"After the little girl got stuck they said they'd fence it off but they have not fenced that part off."

Mrs Smith said gangs of older children regularly congregated on the site, which has six machines and cranes and cement mixers.

Mrs Smith added her own warning to youngsters to stay off building sites: "I would urge all children to stay away in the half-term holidays."

An Arundale spokesman said: "We do our best to keep the building site secure. We have fencing all around the site. We employ two security guards. In spite of this, people seem determined to get on to the site and we have already had a number of incidents of vandalism and theft."

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: "Construction sites are one of the most dangerous places to be. It is vital that parents and teachers get the message across."

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