Inquest jury shown dad’s last moments
A jury has seen video footage of a Sunderland engineer moments before he was crushed to death inside the lift shaft of a ferry undergoing work at Falmouth docks.
Father-of-two Stephen Summerside, from Roker, can be seen on CCTV opening the doors of the lift and stepping on top of the car, at about 8.20am.
Images then show staff call the lift to the floor above.
The 44-year-old died after getting trapped between the lift and shaft on the MV Ulysses on January 11, 2016.
The 51,000-tonne ship, operated by Irish Ferries, was berthed at Queen Elizabeth dock for its annual refit.
The inquest, in Truro opened yesterday and is expected to last until Wednesday, heard Mr Summerside died of traumatic asphyxia after getting crushed.
Pathologist Russell Delaney told the jury: “Mr Summerside was found several hours after CCTV showed him step onto the lift car. It would have been a relatively quick unconsciousness and death.
“There was clear evidence of trunkle compresand sion, rib fractures and bruising of his back. This would have severely restricted his ability to breath. He had a laceration to his head and a dislocated ankle.”
The inquest aims to answer why the lift was not in safety mode.
It is unclear if Mr Summerside was wearing his helmet at the time, but there was one found at the bottom of the lift shaft. He suffered head and neck injuries, upper and lower limb injures was “black and blue”.
Crew members and paramedics spent about an hour carrying out CPR, but he was pronounced dead.
Inspector Billy McWhirter, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said the footage firstly show Mr Summerside inside the lift carrying out checks. He is then seen outside the lift on deck 10 and reaches up to use a key to open the doors.
He sends the car down to deck nine and steps on top. Meanwhile two staff members on deck 11 press the button to call the lift. They can be seen getting inside and less than a minute later get back out.
A statement from steward Maciej Kielch, one of the two who called the lift, said: “I did not see any signs telling us not to use the lift or inferring there was a problem with the lift.
“It arrived on deck and we got in and nothing alerted us something was wrong.”
However when the button was pressed for the lift to move, when it did not respond, they decided to take the stairs.