Colleagues pay tribute to Crossrail engineer killed by falling concrete slab in Holborn

 
“Quiet and kind”: colleagues praised Rene Tkacik, pictured with a friend
Josh Pettitt12 March 2014

Colleagues today paid tribute to an engineer killed by falling concrete in a Crossrail tunnel – the first worker to die on the £15billion project.

Rene Tkacik, 43, was hit on the head by a falling slab from the tunnel’s ceiling 32ft below Fisher Street, Holborn.

The specialist concrete sprayer, employed by civil engineering contractor BFK, had been working on a tunnel linking two lines when he suffered fatal head injuries at around 5am on Friday.

The Metropolitan Police and the Health and Safety Executive are investigating.

Slovakian Mr Tkacik moved to east London from the Spanish coastal town of San Sebastian in March last year.

It is the first death during construction of the new train line linking east and west London. Some 25 miles of tunnels are being dug beneath the capital as part of the project.

A colleague, who asked not to be named, said: “When we started work on the Crossrail project we were constantly reminded about our obligation to our fellow workers that everyone has a right to return home safely.

“Rene didn’t get to go home last Friday to his loved ones, his wife, his family.”

The worker, who saw Mr Tkacik the day before he died, added: “He was a quiet, kind, hard-working true gentleman who carried out his work with honesty and integrity.”

Another construction worker said: “They have as few people at the face as possible. But he shouldn’t have been there and that’s why there has been such a fuss over this.

“It’s very sad. He was just a nice, quiet family man.”

Another worker said: “Everyone down here is obviously very upset by the whole thing. Some of the site is still sealed off while they investigate.”

Read More

In December 2012 worker Barry Mcgreham suffered serious burns after cutting through an electricity cable causing an explosion in Museum Street, Covent Garden.

Unite union bosses have called for a meeting with the project’s contractor BFK over its safety concerns.

Crossrail programme director Andy Mitchell said: “Our thoughts and sympathies are with our worker’s family and his colleagues, who have been offered support and counselling. Safety remains the top focus on Crossrail and we continue to strive to make our sites as safe as possible.”

Parts of the Fisher Street site have been sealed off, but work is expected to resume today.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT