Companies fined £1.5m over death of girl in lift

THE MOTHER of a young girl who died after her head became trapped in a lift has spoken of her family’s “unimaginable” loss as two companies were fined more than £1.5m over her death.

Alexys Brown, five, known as Lexi, died from “horrific” head and neck injuries after becoming stuck between the lift and the ceiling of her home in Weymouth, Dorset in August 2015.

Housing association Synergy Housing Ltd, which owned the property where Alexys lived with her family, was fined £1m.

Maintenance contractor Orona Ltd, which was responsible for servicing and maintaining the lift, was fined £533,000. Both firms pleaded guilty to a single charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Lorraine Brown described the last three years as “unimaginable”. She said: “I hope that what has happened to our family sheds light on others in order to avoid anything like this ever happening again. “We are now looking forward in raising our children with memories, photos, videos and stories of their sister.”

Bournemouth Crown Court heard the incident happened when Alexys’ older brother, who is a wheelchair user, asked her to go upstairs to get his mobile phone. As she went up on the platform lift she was able to put her head through a hole in the Perspex door panel, which had not been repaired – allowing her to get trapped.

The children’s grandmother, who was looking after them, heard the boy shouting. She tried freeing her granddaughter but was unable to and called the emergency services.

Firefighters had to cut Alexys free because there was no emergency key, the court heard.

There had been problems with the lift since they moved in. By May 2015 the door panel was damaged. The lift should have been serviced every six months and examined twice a year but that was last done in 2012.