Five guests injured in Killarney hotel lift failure, court told

Five guests in a leading Killarney hotel were injured when a lift they were travelling in suffered "a catastrophic failure" crashing down four floors, a court has heard.

The passengers, all members of one family who were attending a wedding, were left with serious injuries after the incident at the Killarney Plaza Hotel in Co Kerry in July 2011.

Three of those in the lift were serving gardaí, the trial was told. It was up to 15 minutes before staff at the hotel realised the lift was stuck in the basement and the doors were prised open.

It was up to an hour before ambulances arrived to deal with the five guests in their wedding attire and one of the injured had to be cut out of the lift.

Ellickson Engineering Ltd, the company which installed the Daldoss Easylife lift at the hotel seven years previously, has gone on trial.

The company, based in Kilmurry, Co Waterford is being tried for breach of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act at the hotel in an around April 2004 .

The trial itself was “a most unusual case” was the first of its kind in Kerry, the court heard.

In April 2004 the company had failed to install a safety electric system for the refuge safety space system for maintenance personnel, it is alleged.

The trial, presided over by Judge Thomas E O’Donnell continues.