Cambridge car park crush: Woman's death ruled misadventure

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-45953194

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A woman crushed by a car park shutter mechanism died through misadventure, an inquest jury has ruled.

Heidi Chalkley, 40, died when she voluntarily grabbed on to the shutter but got caught in Cambridge in 2016.

However, the jury said if the shutter's sensors had been "configured and maintained correctly" they should have stopped the door, but did not.

Ms Chalkley was "drawn into the shutter mechanism" and sustained fatal injuries, the jury in Huntingdon added.

Social worker Ms Chalkley had been heading out for the night with her friend Susan Gilmore at about 19:25 BST on 14 August 2016.

Ms Gilmore told the inquest in a statement that as the shutter door went up at the entrance to the underground car park of Ruth Bagnall Court, Ms Chalkley asked her: "Have you ever held on to it as it goes up?"

"She then reached up, held the shutter and it lifted her off the ground," Ms Gilmore added.

Her friend said Ms Chalkley "started to panic as her hands got caught in the barrier", adding her body appeared "folded".

Ms Gilmore dialled 999 and a neighbour, who saw Ms Chalkley hanging 3ft (90cm) from the ground, tried to support her body, but she died at the scene.

A post-mortem examination found Ms Chalkley, who had no alcohol or drugs in her system, died from multiple injuries, including fractures to her ribs, spine, arms and jawbone.

In a narrative verdict, the jury found that the shutter's two detection lasers "which if configured and maintained correctly were intended to stop the gate from opening if a person or object was detected approaching the mechanism, were actually configured in such a way that they didn't in fact stop the continued operation of the shutter".