Stoke-on-Trent lift engineer's death was accidental, inquest finds

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

The death of an engineer who became trapped between a lift and a wall while working at Muller's HQ was accidental, a jury has found.

Lewis McFarlin died at the scene in Market Drayton, Shropshire, when working on a goods lift at the Tern Valley Business Park premises.

An inquest heard the lift had moved after it had undergone an automatic reset.

The jury recorded a conclusion of accidental death.

Mr McFarlin, 24, from Stoke-on-Trent, had been an employee of RJ Lift Services and jurors heard evidence from two colleagues who had been working with him at the site.

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

Giving evidence on Thursday, Craig Logan, specialist inspector in mechanical engineering, said he did not detect any mechanical fault which could have caused the lift to move accidentally.

The incident took place at Muller in January 2020

Patrick McGinley, from the HSE, took the jury through logs from the computer which recorded the lift's last movements.

The automatic request causes the lift to move to either the top or bottom of the shaft if inactive for 120 seconds, the hearing was told.

The lift would have two modes, including an inspection mode where the lift moves more slowly and can only be controlled by the panel at the top of the lift, but the automatic reset could only had been made if the lift was in its normal operation mode, the inquest heard.

Summarising the evidence, coroner John Ellery, said the evidence had shown the lift was likely in normal mode at the time, which would have meant Mr McFarlin would not have been able to control its upwards and downwards motion, but may have been able to stop it if he had time to turn it to inspection mode, or by pressing a stop button.

He said there had been "no evidence" of the lift having been called by anyone from a higher floor.

In a statement, read out by Mr McFarlin's family to the hearing, they said the lifelong Stoke City FC fan was "loved dearly".

"Lewis was a kind caring person who was much loved," they said.