Two companies fined following death of five-year-old

Two companies have been sentenced this month following the death of a five-year-old girl who became trapped while using a lift at home in Weymouth.

The family moved into the property in 2009, owned by Synergy Housing Limited, as part of the Aster Group. The property had an internal lift used by the five-year-old's brother, who used a wheelchair. 

In 2015 the five-year-old got in the lift to get her brother's phone from upstairs. She put her head through a hole in the vision panel and as the lift moved upward, the five-year-old's head got stuck between the lift and the ground floor ceiling. She died of her injuries.

Aster Property Limited managed a contract with Orona Limited on behalf of Synergy Housing Limited for the maintenance and repair of lifts, including the lift at the property in which the five-year-old lived.

Synergy Housing also had an agreement from 2013 with Aster Property Limited to arrange the maintenance and repair of lifts and to control the work.

When one of the perspex vision panels in the lift became damaged in early 2013, this was not fixed or replaced. In May 2015 an Orona engineer visited the property to inspect the lift and noted the vision panel was damaged.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found failures by the three companies:

• Synergy Housing as the family's landlord had primary responsibility for the safety of the lift at the property;
• Aster Property as the company to which responsibility for arranging lift maintenance issues fell;
• Orona who were responsible for the relevant lift maintenance and repair work.

Synergy House Limited pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and has been fined one million and ordered to pay costs of £40,000.

Synergy Housing accepted that its duties were not to be delegated and that the failings of Aster Property were part of its breach. The charge against Aster Property Limited was ordered to be left to lie on the court file and was not separately sentenced.

Orona Limited pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, fined £533,000 and ordered to pay costs of £40,000.

HSE inspector Leo Diez commented on the case, that these companies "failed in their duties" to put systems in place to ensure the lift was kept safe, and more could have been done.

During the investigation the HSE found:

• tenants were not provided with safety critical information concerning the operation of the lift;
• no risk assessment was carried out following the change of lift used when the five-year-old's family moved in;
• concerns raised during service inspection were not addressed including:
  • the perspex vision panel had been damaged for up to 18 months prior to the incident which had been reported in an inspection in 2015,
  • problems with the emergency lowering and lack of emergency hand winding wheel during the entirety of the families tenancy had been shown in documentation from at least January 2011,
  • the key switch used to control operation of the lift had been modified from factory installation to allow removal of the key in any position, meaning it could be operated by anyone at any time;
• concerns raised by the brother's health workers were not taken seriously enough;
• according to HSE guidance, lifts carrying people should be inspected every six months but, in this case, the lift was serviced only four times between 2009 and 2015 and was not thoroughly examined since 2012.

HSE inspector Leo Diez added: "Companies should know HSE will not hesitate to take the appropriate enforcement action against those who flout health and safety law".