A service engineer was crushed to death beneath a supermarket lift in Perth after removing a “bung” in its hydraulics while underneath it, a fatal accident inquiry has heard.
Former soldier Kenneth Heron, 51, had been carrying out routine maintenance on the “scissor” lift, used to transfer goods between two levels in a storeroom at the Co-Op store in Main Street, Bridgend.
The probe, held at Stirling Sheriff Court this week, heard he may have been trying to “bleed” the system.
The tragedy was witnessed by a shop assistant, Ruth Sutherland, who entered the storeroom at the moment the lift platform collapsed, trapping Mr Heron beneath it at 7.17am on October 11 2019.
Miss Sutherland ran to get help and staff called emergency services.
Mr Heron, from Tranent, East Lothian, was freed by firefighters and airlifted to Ninewells Hospital, where he died six days later.
A postmortem revealed he had suffered “unsurvivable” neurological damage due to traumatic asphyxia as a result of entrapment beneath the lift.
‘Catastrophic failure’
The inquiry heard Mr Heron, a mechanical handling services engineer employed by maintenance company Wanzl UK since March 2018, had just completed planned preventative maintenance on the Danish-built lift, including cleaning and greasing.
He then found it would not re-start.
After checking the electrics, he went under the lift and loosened the “blanking bung” on a hydraulic manifold valve – likened to bleeding a radiator.
This caused hydraulic oil to be expelled from the system, squirting at pressure more than a metre across the room and resulting in the lift table collapsing on top of him.
Safety expert Colin Craney told the inquiry removing the blanking plug “was always going to cause catastrophic failure”.
Mr Craney said: “He was trying to get the lift going again.
“He may have thought there was air in the system causing the problem and by doing what he was doing, albeit incorrect, he could bleed the air.
“A jet of oil from the manifold valve was found to have splashed on cardboard boxes a metre away.
“In those conditions there was no possibility of him getting the plug back into that orifice.
“Once the plug was out, there was no putting the genie back in the bottle.”
He added Mr Heron should not have gone underneath the platform without supporting it with props or jacks.
No defects in lift
Procurator fiscal depute Lixia Sun said: “Investigations found that the incident occurred because Mr Heron opened a hydraulic port on the lift, while the lift platform, which was above his head and shoulders, was being supported by the hydraulic system.
“This resulted in an escape of hydraulic oil, allowing the platform to collapse onto him.”
No defects were found on the lift which could have caused or contributed to the incident.
The inquiry heard Mr Heron may have intended to loosen the plug only slightly to release trapped air.
Sheriff Derek Hamilton said: “The evidence is that it was turned and as it was turned further, it explodes out.
“We’ve had an analogy of bleeding a radiator.
“No-one knows what happened. There may be many possible scenarios.”
Former serviceman and postman
Married Mr Heron served in the British Army for some 12 years, including a six month tour in Bosnia.
Prior to joining Wanzl UK he had been a part-time postman.
The evidence stage closed after five days of hearing from witnesses.
The inquiry will continue on June 20 with legal submissions, after which Sheriff Hamilton will give his determination in writing.
For the latest court cases across Tayside and Fife, join our Courts Facebook page.
