Council apologises after solicitor trapped for an hour (From Daily Echo)
When news happens, text SDE and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
Council apologises after solicitor trapped for an hour
4:30pm Sunday 11th December 2011 in News By Arron Hendy
Solicitor broke free from trapped lift
COUNCIL chiefs have apologised after a lawyer was trapped in a council car park lift for so long that he gave up on being rescued and forced his way out.
Ben May was stuck four floors up at the Bedford Place multi-storey car park in Southampton for more than an hour and grew so scared that he made his escape.
Southampton City Council is looking into Mr May’s ordeal after he complained, and it is checking to see if the lift was vandalised prior to Mr May using it.
Mr May said: “I was trapped in a freezing cold lift growing steadily more scared that I was either going to be trapped there all night or the lift might malfunction further and drop me the four stories to the ground.”
He added: “I was worried and a more nervous person could have gone into a full blown panic attack.”
Mr May, a criminal defence lawyer at Eric Robinson Solicitors in Bitterne, Southampton, was on his way home when the inner doors opened but the exterior doors remained “firmly locked”.
The inner doors then began to close but stopped with “a sharp juddering noise which caused the entire lift to shake”.
Mr May pushed the alarm button and was told on the lift intercom that an engineer was coming out but he grew “very agitated by the manner the lift was shaking every time the interior doors tried to close”.
Mr May said it got “more and more nerve-racking” and he grew more concerned by the cold when his fingers started to go numb. He spent ten minutes investigating the outer doors and found a catch to release them.
He said: “I levered the doors open for a final time and hurled myself out of the lift before the doors could close on me.”
A Southampton City Council spokesman said: “We are very sorry to hear that a resident was trapped in one of our car park lifts and apologise for the inconvenience this caused. We work hard with our contractors to make sure car park lifts are in good working order and to get to anyone stuck in a lift as quickly as possible.
“We will certainly look at this to see what happened here."
Comments(34)
SotonLad
says...
5:01pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Stillness
says...
5:12pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Frank28
says...
5:19pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Lumavich1984
says...
5:39pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Linesman
says...
6:23pm Sun 11 Dec 11
We are all equal under the law, but some are more equal than others.
Georgem
says...
6:26pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Lumavich1984 wrote:Yep. Lawyers deserve to be stuck in lifts. A bit of money solves all problems. Everyone else is victimised by the system. Same old knee-jerk bullshit by the same old dullards.
What a Blonker! If he was that scared? Then why didn't he call the Fire Brigade? Plus, like Frank28 said... 'Take the Stairs you lazy git!
Georgem
says...
6:34pm Sun 11 Dec 11
SotonLad wrote:Yep. Defence lawyers are scum. Be sure to remember that when you find yourself arrested for something you didn't do. Be sure to decline legal advice. Have fun. I'm sure the country would be in a much better position if we simply let the police arrest whoever they wanted, for whatever they wanted, and also just bypassed the court altogether and locked whoever they wanted up, indefinitely.
Defence lawyer. Shame. Merry Xmas!
dogbruce
says...
7:08pm Sun 11 Dec 11
gordongull
says...
7:25pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Scrutinizer
says...
7:56pm Sun 11 Dec 11
rightway wrote:Nice one! ;-) I can inform this gent that I think I'm correct in saying that only one person has ever been killed by one of those things dropping out of control since they were invented. Anyway I hope that will give him a lift.
Sounds dramatic, no doubt compensation has already set in. I am suprised that he didn't stay longer then charged by the hour. Whatever way it pans out I'm sure it'll be a nice little earner for all that distress.
freefinker
says...
8:07pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Scrutinizer wrote:.. oh!!
rightway wrote:Nice one! ;-) I can inform this gent that I think I'm correct in saying that only one person has ever been killed by one of those things dropping out of control since they were invented. Anyway I hope that will give him a lift.
Sounds dramatic, no doubt compensation has already set in. I am suprised that he didn't stay longer then charged by the hour. Whatever way it pans out I'm sure it'll be a nice little earner for all that distress.
You've elevated this discussion to new heights.
Rob444
says...
8:12pm Sun 11 Dec 11
"A Southampton City Council spokesman said: “We are very sorry to hear that a resident was trapped in one of our car park lifts "
I find it difficult to believe that the trapped person actually lives in the car park.
Matt Probert
says...
8:35pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Georgem wrote:I thought they did anyway?
SotonLad wrote: Defence lawyer. Shame. Merry Xmas!Yep. Defence lawyers are scum. Be sure to remember that when you find yourself arrested for something you didn't do. Be sure to decline legal advice. Have fun. I'm sure the country would be in a much better position if we simply let the police arrest whoever they wanted, for whatever they wanted, and also just bypassed the court altogether and locked whoever they wanted up, indefinitely.
And for the record, defence lawyers are fine people (as you obviously know, but some others here are unaware).
It's litigation lawyers (aka ambulance chasers) which are the scum of the modern times.
Matt
Paramjit Bahia
says...
8:37pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Felt really sorry for the person trapped, then realised he is from profession that mints money from the miseries of others. So no comment.
Reality-man
says...
8:38pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Paramjit Bahia
says...
8:38pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Linesman wrote:Very true
I bet that if he had been a 20 year old instead of a Lawyer, he would have been charged with criminal damage.
We are all equal under the law, but some are more equal than others.
gordongull
says...
8:39pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Rob444 wrote:The guy had been there long enough to acquire residential status.
The article states that:
"A Southampton City Council spokesman said: “We are very sorry to hear that a resident was trapped in one of our car park lifts "
I find it difficult to believe that the trapped person actually lives in the car park.
forest hump
says...
8:46pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Condor Man
says...
8:49pm Sun 11 Dec 11
gordongull
says...
9:02pm Sun 11 Dec 11
gordongull
says...
9:24pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Scrutinizer wrote:Yes, but Bruce Willis had a lucky escape in Die Hard.
rightway wrote:Nice one! ;-) I can inform this gent that I think I'm correct in saying that only one person has ever been killed by one of those things dropping out of control since they were invented. Anyway I hope that will give him a lift.
Sounds dramatic, no doubt compensation has already set in. I am suprised that he didn't stay longer then charged by the hour. Whatever way it pans out I'm sure it'll be a nice little earner for all that distress.
dockboy
says...
9:50pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Saint_Davey
says...
10:13pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Brilliant bloke and great solicitor if you ever need one!
Linesman
says...
10:36pm Sun 11 Dec 11
Condor Man wrote:Met any adorable traffic wardens recently?
it's a bit harsh to call someone who performs a job you don't like as being scum. To get to that level I would expect he worked really hard.
What about clampers?
MGRA
says...
10:49pm Sun 11 Dec 11
gordongull
says...
12:07am Mon 12 Dec 11
gordongull wrote:'storey'
Evans above! (a three story drop.)
Sorry to repeat this. Once was bad enough!
clausentum
says...
12:39am Mon 12 Dec 11
MGRA wrote:You may want to check your post in the next few days, for a letter containing the word "defamation"?
i got trapped in a lift once... guess what I did ? I got myself out, and got on with my life, because I was not a poorly performing lawyer who desperately seeked publicity for a non-event because I was cr*p at my day job.
;-)
Scrutinizer
says...
5:10am Mon 12 Dec 11
Saint_Davey wrote:Well the Echo is obviously playing their usual little provocative game of inviting p*ss-taking comments here. I mean they wouldn't have mentioned the guy's occupation if he was just a plain ol' 'boring' milkman an I.T. worker, a postman etc, now would they? No, exactly! ;-)
Actually to all you a'holes slagging this guy off, he is actually a genuinely nice bloke. He was my solicitor when I was wrongly charged for driving uninsured when it was a fault by my previous insurers. I was faced with 6 points a £300 fine and had already had my car towed at the time. The most I had hoped for was a reduction but Ben got me a complete discharge. Brilliant bloke and great solicitor if you ever need one!
The Wickham Man
says...
6:36am Mon 12 Dec 11
Huffter
says...
2:27pm Mon 12 Dec 11
Georgem
says...
6:54pm Mon 12 Dec 11
Linesman wrote:Met any traffic wardens at all, out of uniform?
Condor Man wrote:Met any adorable traffic wardens recently?
it's a bit harsh to call someone who performs a job you don't like as being scum. To get to that level I would expect he worked really hard.
What about clampers?
Georgem
says...
6:55pm Mon 12 Dec 11
MGRA wrote:The word you seek, is 'sought'
i got trapped in a lift once... guess what I did ? I got myself out, and got on with my life, because I was not a poorly performing lawyer who desperately seeked publicity for a non-event because I was cr*p at my day job.
Georgem
says...
6:57pm Mon 12 Dec 11
Huffter wrote:Most people commenting on here have an ingrained hatred of anybody who earns more than £15k p/a and think that anybody who lives above the breadline automatically do not have any problems, ever.
What on earth are people concerned about his profession for? It is not in any way relevant to the fact that he was stuck in a lift... pity the Echo decided to report it.
More News stories
- Three more arrests in city shooting investigation
- Firefighters left man in pond 'as he seemed dead'
- Bus driver drove away from scene of accident
- Fluoridation may spread outside consultation area
- Portsmouth FC axes number of jobs
- Mum punched by armed burglars
- Fancy dress firm shuts up shop
- Pharmacist backs crackdown on unused medicines
- 'Health and safety' prevented firefighter rescuing drowning man
- Call to make cycling safer
rightway says...
4:50pm Sun 11 Dec 11
I am suprised that he didn't stay longer then charged by the hour.
Whatever way it pans out I'm sure it'll be a nice little earner for all that distress.