posted 05-16-2019 04:59 PM                       

quote: Daily Mail (my emphasis)

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Father-of-one, 24, died in front of his wife when his neck got wedged under a Vue cinema seat's electronic leg-rest as he kneeled to search for his keys and phone

A cinema-goer died in front of his devastated wife from 'catastrophic' injuries after his neck became wedged under an electronic leg-rest, an inquest has heard.

Ateeq Rafiq knelt down after struggling to find his keys and phone.

The 24-year-old had been at the cinema with his wife Ayesha Sardar on March 9 last year and bought tickets from a machine for seats in Gold Class, screen 17.

After realising his keys and phone were missing he got up off his seat with the footrest in the raised position and went under the seat. A engineering expert who conducted tests of the chair told the court that about three-quarters of a tonne of pressure then clamped down on Mr Rafiq's neck.

Writing on social media Mr Rafiq's wife Ayesha Sardar described her last moments with her husband, who she called her 'best friend'.

'When I held your hand for the last time I felt you squeeze it with a different strength, a strength which kind of indicated you knew you were leaving me and Aairah forever,' Ayesha wrote.

'I was calling your name and I was holding you as much as I could and I told you I’m there with you like I promised you from day one.

'I was the last one to ever see you with your eyes open, the last one to hear your voice and the last one to see you smile and I’m so grateful to Allah SWT every day for giving me that chance as your wife.

'I remember you telling me you love me for the last time and I told you I love you back and our life together ended there for a while.'

'My Ateeq, see you soon inshallah.'

In another post, Ayesha revealed the close bond she and her husband shared, saying the 'nights are the worst' since his death.

'I just think of each and every day we spent together over and over again in my head,' she wrote.

'I think of what we used to talk about and how close we were to each other… we could sit there for hours and spend days on end with each other.

'There is really nobody out there who will ever replace you. My best friend. My love and my beautiful husband. I can’t wait to see you again and hold you and tell you much I missed you.'

Birmingham Coroners' Court heard that Mr Rafiq's body had turned blue after the accident and that it had been 10 to 15 minutes before he had been released.

Area coroner Emma Brown said his wife had tried to hold the footrest up when it had started to come down on him but wasn't able to operate the buttons to stop it.

Paramedics arrived and Mr Rafiq was taken to Heartlands Hospital where he died on March 16 after suffering a 'catastrophic' hypoxic brain injury.

Mechanical engineering expert Charles Stephens Simmons-Jacobs, who conducted tests on the cinema seat, said: 'I tested the force by making up a test rig that made up the pivot points.

'It was estimated to be between two to 7.5 kilonewtons - which equivalates to three quarters of a tonne landing on his neck.

'The reason it had this much force was so that it could lift somebody legs up and down.

'There was no reason for this much force for a double acting actuator to be use for a footrest.

'A seat with a single acting actuator would be able to lift the footrest by hand.

'I would have thought someone who has to inspect the seats would know there was something wrong with the seat if they couldn't lift the footrest compared to the other seats where they could life the footrests.

'On this chair we were looking for possible entrapment.

'If we find we cannot lift the footrest up then we know that when that footrest is coming down it's coming down with force and could entrap somebody.

'I would consider if you had mechanical apparatus that you make money from I would expect somebody would check them out every now and then in a risk assessment.'

In a statement, Ayesha Sardar described her husband as a 'loving father, son, husband and friend.

'He was always happy and positive and took every day as it came.He had a brilliant sense of humour and the greatest of hearts.

'There is not a day that goes by when we do not think of him. He is now a beautiful memory for his three year old daughter.'

Mr Simmons-Jacobs was asked to visit the Vue Cinema at Birmingham's Star City complex on March 27 last year as part of a city council inquiry.

He told the court the 'gold class' seats were fitted with a pressure pad, meaning the controls only worked when a customer was seated.

After a customer vacated one of the seats, the control box waited for four seconds before returning the headrest and footrest to vertical positions, the inquest heard.

The seat occupied by Mr Rafiq - C5 - was found after the accident to have a blown fuse.

Describing the tragedy Mrs Sardar she said her husband had used her mobile phone as a torch to look for his phone and keys.

She said at one point his whole body was under the seat with only his legs visible.

'The footrest started to come down trapping his neck. He called out in pain. I continued to get the footrest off. This was trapping my fingers.

'I then noticed there were no lights displayed on the control panel at the side of the chair. I realised I needed to get help and I ran outside Gold Class.'

After trying to get help Mrs Zardari went back into the cinema.

'I noticed his breathing was very bad. It appeared as if he was suffocating.'

Mrs Sardar said she found one member of staff and after about five minutes others arrived.

She said she had asked whether her husband was breathing and that when they did pulled him out, his body was blue.

The inquest continues.

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posted 05-17-2019 09:02 AM                    

quote: Frank Cox

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Sounds like those seats should be designed with some kind of a cover between the footrest and the seat body that prevents people from crawling under them.

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posted 05-17-2019 10:07 AM                       

quote: Marcel Birgelen

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You could design the system in such way that all seats can be commanded to normal position from a central console, but it's not like I can't see that going wrong.

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posted 05-17-2019 02:01 PM                    

quote: Jim Cassedy

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Didin't this, or something very similar, happen at least once before,
about a year or two ago, or am I just having a massive case of DejaVu?

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quote: Leo Enticknap

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Nevertheless, having ushers press buttons on 20-30 seats between shows is vastly preferable to what happened in this case. Theater staff can be given safety training on how to handle these things: customers can't.

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New in your local cinema: "In-flight" Safety Instructions.
Actually, the 4DX presentation I've seen did have something like a short safety video... Going to the movies is becoming more like flying every day...

posted 05-17-2019 06:02 PM                    

quote:

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March 21, 2018

LONDON — A man has died of a heart attack after reportedly getting his head trapped in a movie theater seat in Birmingham, England, as he tried to retrieve a dropped cellphone.

The incident, which took place at the Vue Cinema in the Star City entertainment complex, was described as a “freak” accident.

According to The Birmingham Mail, the man had dropped his cellphone between two “Gold Class” seats and was attempting to retrieve it when an electronic footrest came down on his head, wedging him underneath. Customers pay more to sit in the reclining Gold Class seats, described as “luxury seating.”

Sources told The Mail that the man's partner and Vue staff desperately tried to free him.

“He was stuck and panicking. His partner and staff tried to free him but couldn’t.”

“The chair leg-rest was eventually broken free and he managed to get out,” the account added.

West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed it was called to reports of a patient in cardiac arrest on March 9. The man was taken to a Birmingham hospital in a “serious condition” but died of his injuries a week later, on March 16.

In a statement, Vue International confirmed the man's death: “Following an incident which took place on Friday 9 March at our Birmingham cinema, we can confirm that a customer was taken to hospital that evening. We are saddened to learn that he passed away on Friday 16 March.”

Vue said a “full investigation into the nature of the incident is ongoing.”

A health and safety investigation from Birmingham City Council also was underway.

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