WORKPLACE - 02.07.2010

Companies pay £800k for lift death

Taken as read

When you use a lift you put your trust in those responsible for it that they’ve made sure it’s properly maintained. You wouldn’t imagine for a moment that it would be in use if they knew it was faulty. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for customers and staff at Holmes Place Health Club (H) in central London.

What happened?

Customer, Katarzyna Woja, was stepping out of a lift at the club in the Broadgate complex when she became trapped in between the doors as they closed. The elevator then suddenly dropped, crushing her against the wall of the lift shaft. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Why?

After the accident, environmental health officers couldn’t establish the reason why the lift had dropped. There were several potential causes. It turned out that the lift had been so unreliable that the engineers from Thyssen Krupp (K) had been called out 41 times over a period of just 15 months. Only the day before the accident, the lift had dropped a short distance and an engineer had been called out to inspect it. But clearly he had failed to get to the root of the lift’s maintenance problems.

In court

Both parties were accused of causing the accident through their complacency. H pleaded guilty to various charges including breaching Regulation 5 of the Lifting Operations and Lifting EquipmentRegulations 1998 (LOLER). This requires that employers prevent persons from being struck, crushed, trapped or falling from the lift car. It was fined £233,000 and ordered to pay £170,000 in costs. K appeared at the same hearing and pleaded guilty to breaching s.3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £233,000, plus £205,000 costs.

Prevention

This case highlights the danger of taking lift safety for granted. Although they have numerous in-built safeguards, it’s essential that even small defects are taken seriously. Normally, lift maintenance companies err on the cautious side, so despite the fact that it didn’t happen in this case, you should be able to rely on your lift company’s opinion.

Tip 1. In addition to ensuring your lift is maintained by a specialist lift company, make sure that it’s subject to a six-monthly independent test and examination. This is usually carried out by insurance company inspectors. Note. This examination is a legal requirement under the LOLER (see The next step).

Tip 2. Although it’s inconvenient, you must be prepared to put your lift out of use when there’s evidence of a defect which could affect its safety.

Tip 3. If a lift develops a serious repeat fault like this one, don’t allow it to be put back into service until it’s been independently checked by your insurance inspector.

For further information on how LOLER apply to lifts, visit http://healthandsafety.indicator.co.uk (HS 08.21.04).