A mother yesterday described how her 9-year-old son was crushed to death by an electric gate after he tried to save a 10p charge to use the intercom.
In order to enter the exclusive block of flats where his grandparents lived, Jason Keet had squeezed through a 16cm (9in) gap between the pair of gates and a brick pillar to reach a button that would open them — and save his grandmother a call charge.
Unaware that by dialing a code visitors could enter the premises for free, the boy put his arm, head and shoulder through the gap between the heavy steel gate and the pillar.
Jason’s head then became trapped in the narrowing gap, Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset Coroner’s Court was told. Samantha Whittle, his mother, struggled against the weight of the mechanised gates but Jason was pronounced dead on arrival at Poole Hospital, in Dorset.
Mrs Whittle told the inquest that she had been taking Jason and his sister, Rhiannon, now 12, to stay with their grandparents at the block of flats in Branksome Park, Poole, last April. The children were on Easter holiday and she had to go to work as a practice nurse.
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Mrs Whittle, from Bournemouth, said that they had always used this method of opening the gates to avoid a 10p charge to use the intercom.
She said: “The first time we visited, my parents showed me how to operate the gate. They showed us the keypad that was on the outside of the gate but they also showed us the button at the back of the gate, which saved a phone charge being incurred.
“I think it was explained to me that it was a 10p charge every time the intercom was used, so it made sense not to use it,” Mrs Whittle said.
She recalled how her children raced each other to carry out the familiar task.
“I pulled up and they jumped out of the car, ran over to the gate and, on this occasion, Jason got there first.” she said.
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“He put his arm round, pressed the button but for some reason he didn’t catch the button straight away. He would normally reach the button without any problems, but on this occasion he just couldn’t feel it and I saw him slide through so he could look behind the post and press the button.”
She said that her memories of the event were hazy, but that Jason had probably managed to pull his chest and shoulder from the gap, which was then too narrow to get his head through, she said.
Once she realised what was happening, Mrs Whittle said she immediately moved to help her son escape: “I perceived quite quickly that he was having trouble and I leapt out of the car. I was out of the car by the time the gates were halfway open. They weren’t fully open because I was trying to stop them.”
She began screaming as she fought against the force of the mechanised gates, but her efforts were unsuccessful.
“They say you have the strength of ten people and I honestly feel I did — but they didn’t move,” she said.
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“There was no way those gates were going to let me stop them. Once they had fully opened I pulled them, I pushed them, I barged them.”
By the time he was freed, Jason was “just about able to stand,” she said.
Raymond Brown, a retired company director who lives in one of the eight flats heard Mrs Whittle’s screams and hurried outside.
Mr Brown wept as he told the inquest: “I saw Jason slumped and trapped between the steel gates and the post. The gates were in the open position and Mrs Keet (Mrs Whittle’s former name) was desperately trying to open them. Jason was facing the pillar, he was slumped.”
With another man, Mr Brown managed to break the hinges on the gate and release Jason, who was taken to Poole Hospital where attempts to resuscitate him failed. He died of a cardiac arrest after a massive head injury.
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David Bell, an inspector for the Health and Safety Executive, told the inquest that the gap which Jason had put his head through was too big and did not meet European standards. Mr Bell said the size of the gap and the location of the button so it could be reached from the outside, were contributing factors to Jason’s death.
The hearing continues.