Engineer trapped between lift and wall at Muller plant

Lewis McFarlin had been on top of the lift, his inquest heard

An engineer died after becoming trapped between a lift and the wall of its shaft at the headquarters of dairy giant Muller, an inquest heard

Lewis McFarlin, from Stoke-on-Trent died at the scene in Market Drayton, Shropshire, on 16 January 2020.

The inquest at Shrewsbury's Shirehall heard he was standing on top of the goods lift conducting maintenance when it moved "unexpectedly".

One witness described trying to free the 24-year-old.

The hearing was told Mr McFarlin had been an employee of RJ Lift Services, and had been working with colleagues Ryan Wintle and Richard Fuller at the Tern Valley Business Park premises.

Mr Fuller was inside the lift, while Mr Wintle was outside the lift entrance.

Giving evidence on the first day of the hearing, Mr Wintle, who was then an apprentice lift engineer, said he was on the first floor when he heard Mr Fuller shouting, and he asked him to check on Mr McFarlin.

Lewis McFarlin died at the scene at Muller's headquarters in Market Drayton, Shropshire

After releasing the doors on the first floor, he said the top of the lift was level with the floor and he could see Mr McFarlin's head and arm, and tried unsuccessfully to free him.

He then went to the motor room and partially dropped the lift, which exposed the upper half of Mr McFarlin's chest. However, he said he "still couldn't get him out" and went for help.

A post-mortem examination, coroner John Ellery said, found Mr McFarlin died from multiple traumatic injuries.

On the first day of the hearing the jury were shown images of the lift by Craig Logan, a Health and Safety Executive specialist inspector in mechanical engineering.

Mr Fuller told the hearing the three men had done their scheduled work before being asked by a Muller employee to work on the two-tonne goods lift, as the doors on the ground floor would not open when a load was inside.

From the top of the lift, he said, Mr McFarlin had identified an issue with the locks on the landing doors and had brought it down to allow Mr Fuller to enter and work on the problem from the inside.

Once that was done, he said the plan was for Mr McFarlin, still on top of the lift, to take it down to the ground floor to allow him to exit, so it could be tested.

Expecting it to go down, Mr Fuller said it had actually gone up.

The hearing resumes on Thursday and is scheduled to last for three days.