A company learned it faces a date with the Old Bailey after a lift engineer they sub-contracted at a prestigious Mayfair development was crushed to death despite desperate efforts to save his life.
J Brown Services Limited of Nirvana House, London Road, West Kingsdown, Kent pleaded guilty at City of London Magistrates’ Court to a summons brought by the Health and Safety Executive.
Andrew Bates, 40, was tragically crushed to death when a lift he was fitting safety equipment to suddenly began moving at 17 Woodstock Street, a four-storey terraced office block, on December 6, 2005.
“Cables hanging from the shaft got snagged on bolts sending a rogue signal to the lift and causing it to move and then trapping Mr. Bates,” prosecutor Miss Hillary Ross told the court.
“Men on the site report they heard screams and Mr. Bates was trapped between the top of the lift roof and the shaft and they were unable to free him.
“They had to call the fire brigade to free Mr. Bates who later died in hospital,” added Miss Ross.
“The prosecution’s case is that he was unfamiliar with the lift and had no formal qualifications. When someone has neither that person is unqualified to take on the job.”
The court was told the building refurbishment included the removal of the old lift and installation of a new one and J Brown took over the half-finished job when the original contractor ran out of time.
Mr. Bates was not an employee of the company, but was a sub-contractor they knew and was working with a member of the Brown family when the tragedy occurred.
The Health and Safety Executive say J Brown should have used five-core cable instead of three-core which reduces the chances of a rogue signal.
They also maintain a person should have been assigned to manually control the lift.
The company’s lawyer Mr. Angus Withington told the court J Brown ceased trading on August 31, 2007 and will be wound-up at the conclusion of the prosecution.
It’s current assess total £11,300.
“There’s no doubt this was a tragic accident,” said Mr. Withington. “The lift was travelling extremely slowly when Mr Bates attempted to jump off, but failed and was trapped.
“The tragedy is if he had stayed where he was he would have been in a safe place designated for that purpose.”
An inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court recorded a verdict of accidental death.
The Health and Safety Executive’s expert Dr. Anthony Wray told the inquest Mr. Bates would have had only a split-second to react when the lift started moving.
The company admitted that being an employer they failed to ensure that the safety, as far as was reasonably practicable, of persons not in their employment would not be effected by their work installing a lift between November 30 and December 6, 2005.
They will appear at the Central Criminal Court on a date to be fixed.
This type on incidents seem to be more frequent. I've read two more stories where lift engineers have been in a tragic accident. The first thing we teach our lift engineers at Sheridan Lifts is about health and safety of not just the lift that they are working on, but of what's happening around them.
ReplyDelete