Firm fined after mother 'crushed to death’ in garage door

An electrical company has been fined after a woman was crushed to death in the faulty shutter door system of an underground car park.

BS Graves (Electrical) Limited pleaded guilty to a health and safety offence after Heidi Chalkley, 40, died in Cambridge in 2016.

The mother-of-one was heading for a night out with a friend when she grabbed hold of the rising door, after asking her companion: "Have you ever held on to it as it goes up?," an inquest heard in October 2018.

She panicked as her hands got trapped and was pulled into the machinery, the hearing in Huntingdon was told.

She died at the scene of multiple injuries on August 14, 2016, having suffered fractures to her ribs, spine, arms and jawbone.

She had no alcohol or drugs in her system, according to a post-mortem examination, and an inquest jury concluded she had died through misadventure.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) concluded that the sensors at the top of the door, which should have stopped it, were incorrectly wired and no longer functioned as the door opened.

The watchdog said BS Graves (Electrical) Limited had inspected the roller shutter door a month before the incident, but didn't check the operation of safety sensors and so failed to identify the fault.

BS Graves (Electrical) Limited of Rushmere Close, Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health & Safety at Work Act at Peterborough Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

The company was fined £25,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,500, the HSE said.

After the court hearing, HSE inspector Graeme Warden said: "This tragic and distressing incident has had an untold impact on all those who knew Heidi.

"It could have been avoided if the company had ensured employees were suitably trained to inspect the doors and the functioning of the safety sensors."

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