Father killed by lift at Royal Oldham, inquest hears

Sandy Noble, from Scarborough, was taking part in works to refurbish and rewire a non-operational lift at the hospital in February 2021.

The 33-year-old father-of-one died following an incident involving the lift in the shaft he was working, and today (Monday, January 8), an inquest into his death was opened by senior coroner Joanne Kearsley at Rochdale Coroners Court.

Mr Noble was a "lovely" man who loved his partner and son, his mother Carol Biggins told the court, and he had been in his role as a labourer for two years.

He was working alongside Daniel Belton, a sub-contractor, with the pair carrying out the refurbishment and rewiring of a lift known as Lift Six at Royal Oldham, although Mr Noble was not a qualified lift engineer.

Sandy Noble was 33-years-old when he died in February, 2021 (Image: Irwin Mitchell Solicitors)

Despite this, Mr Noble had the appropriate qualifications to be on the site as long as he was supervised by a qualified lift engineer, which Mr Belton was.

The pair had been working at Royal Oldham for some weeks after being employed to do the works by contractor Ascendant Lifts.

The court heard from Detective Inspector for Greater Manchester Police Andrew Fink, who said on the morning of February 22, 2021, Mr Noble was in the lift shaft of Lift Five, the lift adjacent to Lift Six, which was undergoing the refurbishment.

As part of the works being carried out on Lift Six, which was not in operation, both Mr Belton and Mr Noble needed to access Lift Five, which was in operation.

Despite this, both David Gruber, senior estates projects officer at Northern Care Alliance, and Adrian Mottram, managing director of Mottram Associates, a lift and escalator consultant company which works with Royal Oldham, said they were not made aware at any point that Mr Belton and Mr Noble needed to access Lift Five as part of the works.

Mr Belton was working on the first floor when he heard a shout from the basement and called for Mr Noble, however he did not receive a response.

Emergency services attended and Mr Noble was declared dead at the scene, at the basement level.

Mr Belton told investigators that he had instructed Mr Noble to prepare tools and equipment at the basement level and that this did not require him to enter the lift shaft of Lift Five.

Mr Noble was carrying out works at Royal Oldham Hospital (Image: Newsquest)

DI Fink explained to the court how the lift shaft had what was known as a "safe zone", an area where one could lie down and not be hit by the lift at the bottom of the shaft.

The bottom of the lift shaft also had two emergency stop buttons, an upper one and a lower one, which are both designed to cut the power to the control circuit if pressed.

DI Fink said investigators believe Mr Noble opened the doors to Lift Five at the basement level and CCTV footage indicated he pressed the upper emergency stop button before getting into the shaft.

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Mr Noble had also wedged open the doors, another mechanism to stop the power to the lift.

However, the upper emergency stop button was removed or came out at some point and the device wedging the doors open was either removed or failed at some point.

There were two emergency logs recorded, however Iain Simkin, representing David Brown of Ascendant Lifts, stated this did not necessarily mean the emergency buttons had been hit.

The court also heard the lower stop button was found to have a fault at the time.

Rochdale Coroners Court (Image: Newsquest)

Ms Kearsley read evidence from forensic pathologist Dr Philip Lumb, who carried out the postmortem examination.

He said there was no evidence of alcohol in Mr Noble's system, although there was evidence of THC, the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis.

Dr Lumb ruled Mr Noble's cause of death as head and neck injuries.

When asked why Mr Noble had been in Lift Five at the time of his death, DI Fink said: "I don't know why."

The inquest continues.