A COUNCIL has been ordered to pay more than £160,000 in fines and costs after a paraplegic man was fatally suffocated using a hoist designed to help him in his home.
Newport City Council pleaded guilty in court to breaching health and safety legislation after Michael Powell died while attempting to hoist himself out of bed on January 20, 2008 – and was unable to call for help.
Newport Crown Court heard that an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed there was no emergency call button and that the hoist should not have been operated by Mr Powell alone.
The council said yesterday that it was “deeply sorry” for what happened and accepted responsibility for “errors made”.
The 53-year-old, who lived alone in his Newport bungalow, was found dead in the early afternoon the following day after his family became concerned they couldn’t contact him.
He had been paralysed from the chest down after a Speedway accident in the 1970s, and was forced to use a wheelchair.
Newport council had installed ceiling track hoists in his bathroom and bedroom in a bid to help him to live independently, and Newport Crown Court heard that they were subject to regular maintenance checks by the council’s in-house disability equipment providers, Monwel Hankinson.
But an HSE investigation revealed that the handset control for the ceiling track hoist was on the floor next to his bed and that tests indicated that it could easily detach and fall off.
It also found that one of the directional buttons on the handset was pointing in the wrong direction, and that the emergency pull cord that would normally lower the user to safety if trapped was not working due to corrosion of the battery terminals. The HSE said the hoists had been provided to Mr Powell to use on his own, without the aid of a carer – but that the manufacturer’s guidance indicated they should only be used with a carer present. He had no alarm or call system to help him if he became trapped, and he had no means of summoning help, the court heard.
The council pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations and was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £60,108.02.
HSE inspector, Stephen Hanson-Hall, said: “This is a tragic incident. Mr Powell was a very independent person who relied on the equipment provided to him by Newport City Council to further assist that independence.
“Prior to this incident Mr Powell had contacted Newport City Council with concerns about becoming trapped, but the risk of entrapment and lone use went unchecked.
“Despite the best intentions of the council, he was provided with a hoist that was inappropriate for independent living without additional safeguards being put in place.”
