Labourer death at Royal Oldham Hospital ruled an accident

The death of a labourer at Royal Oldham Hospital has been ruled an accident, a coroner has concluded.

Sandy Noble, a labourer from Scarborough, was undertaking lift repairs at Royal Oldham Hospital when he was found fatally injured in February 2021.

An inquest was held at Rochdale Coroner’s Court last week, which heard that the father-of-one died of head and neck injuries after two safety measures which should have prevented a live lift from moving, failed.

Mr Noble, who “did not have any qualifications to enable him to enter a lift pit unsupervised” was employed by a friend and was undertaking work on lift 6.

The court heard how some of the work required access to lift 5, which was operational and understood to have been worked on previously.

In entering the lift shaft Mr Noble more than likely used a screwdriver to wedge open the lift doors, and examination of the lift event log shows the lift stop button was pressed.

Either of these safety measures should, in isolation, have prevented the lift from moving.

The court heard that using a screwdriver to wedge open the lift doors was common practice in the lift industry.

For reasons which are unclear the lift stop button is released before Mr Noble had exited the lift shaft. In addition, the screwdriver fails allowing the lift doors to close.

The court heard how the lift began to move downwards after the safety measures failed. Despite pressing a second stop button lower down, the circuit was “re-energised” due to a fault and the lift recommenced moving, causing the death of Mr Noble.

Coroner Joanne Kearsley found “there was no reason to access lift 5” and “no evidence to indicate Mr Noble was given instructions” to do so before ruling his tragic death an accident.

At the time of his death, Mr Noble was employed by a company called DB Lifts and had been working as a labourer for two years.

The incident is being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive.

Speaking after the hearing concluded, Mr Noble’s partner Carley Holden, 35, said: “I’ll never forget the feeling when I was told Sandy had died. I didn’t want to believe it and hoped he would walk through the door after work as normal. But he didn’t.

“Our son has struggled since losing his dad. They were the best of friends and it’s really tough to see him having to navigate his way through life without Sandy. I’ll make sure he knows how much his dad loved him though.

“We’d give anything to have Sandy back, but we know that’s not possible. Hearing everything again at the inquest has been incredibly hard, but at least we now have some answers.

“I just hope that by speaking out, nobody else will have to suffer the pain our family has.”

Claire Newstead, the specialist workplace accident lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing Sandy’s family, said after the hearing: “Understandably, coming to terms with losing Sandy so suddenly at such a young age has been incredibly difficult for his loved ones.

“They’ve also had a number of unanswered questions over what happened that day and how Sandy died in such tragic circumstances.

“While nothing will make up for the family’s suffering, we’re pleased to have at least been able to provide them with some of the answers they deserved.

“Unfortunately, the inquest has identified issues in the working practices Sandy was faced with. 

“The HSE continue to investigate and we’ll support Sandy’s loved ones at this difficult time.”