‘There was a bang and we were gone’

There were scenes of chaos and horrific injury and shock after five hotel guests were in a lift when it suffered “a catastrophic failure” crashing down four floors.

The passengers, all members of one family including three serving gardaí who were in Killarney, Co Kerry, for a wedding, were left with serious injuries in July 2011, a court has heard.

Ellickson Engineering has gone on trial without making an appearance.

Ellickson, of Kilmurry, Waterford, incorporated in 1969, and which remains in existence, is being tried for breach of the safety health and welfare at work acts at the Plaza Hotel Killarney in and around April 2004, when the lift was installed.

When a limited company failed to appear, and had not sent a representative, the matter proceeded “as though the company had entered a plea of not guilty”, Tom Rice, prosecuting, said.

Andrew Meehan, from Co Meath, told Tralee Circuit Court he was part of a family of seven siblings staying at the Plaza Hotel on July 9, 2011, as his first cousin was getting married in Killarney.

At 2pm, he and his wife Trish, brother Kevin and his wife Jenny, and another brother, Paul, returned to the Plaza. The plan was to eat before heading to the wedding reception at the Muckross Park Hotel.

He pressed the button for the reception areas but the lift button only lit for the floor above. It went up but when it tried to dock, “it jumped”, Mr Meehan said.

“There was a noise, a bang. Something was clearly wrong,” he said. The lift fell a few feet and came to a sudden stop. There was a sound like a cable straining, there was another bang and they were in free fall.

“We were hanging there. The lift was detached, rotating. The next thing there was a bang and we were gone.”

Mr Meehan suffered convoluted fractures to his left tibia, a broken right tibia and crushed right heel. His wife’s dislocated bone was clearly visible pressing through the skin and twisted at an unnatural angle.

Glass in the lift shattered along with all the mirrors, the ceiling and panels came down. Only one light was working and they had no mobile coverage in the basement — the lift’s phone was broken. He had to undergo 11-hour surgery and was transferred to a zimmer frame and later crutches.

“I’m in chronic pain on a daily basis. My mobility is not great and this has had a huge effect on me and my family,” he said.

His wife, Patricia O’Leary, told how the couple had two children at the time aged three and 11 months. She suffered a number of serious leg injuries as well as chest whiplash.

The older child particularly suffered. “Her parents went away for a weekend and came back in wheelchairs.”

Paul Meehan said that when he heard the tear and the snap on the fourth floor followed by the lift’s weightlessness, his life flashed in front of him. Down below, it was like “living in a horror movie”, said the garda who tried to distract everyone else, attend to Jenny, and try to figure out how to get help.

It was 15 minutes of shouting before anyone arrived.

The trial continues.