Disabled woman in tears as she's stranded in lift at home

A disabled woman got stuck in her lift twice in a week. Tracey Crowther, who lives with her son, sent NorthWalesLive this video of the second occasion on Thursday after a similar problem on Tuesday.

The 60-year-old widow was midway between floors at her terraced home in Rhyl both times. She said Stannah Lifts came out and fixed the problem on Tuesday. But it comes after what she claimed were years of issues with the lift and now she wants an affordable new warranty, claiming £75 a month is too expensive.

Mrs Crowther has four sons with one of them David, 30, living with her in their three-storey, mid-terraced home in Wellington Road. She has a lift between the ground floor and first floor to get to her bedroom.

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Mrs Crowther messaged NorthWalesLive on Tuesday while trapped in the lift, saying: "I am writing this to you now as I am trapped in the lift in between floors. The lift won't go up or down." She added: "I've been here now for what seems an eternity. I'm scared, cold and desperately in need of the bathroom."

An engineer from Stannah Lifts did come out and she was able to get out of the lift. She said she was stuck from 8.10am until about 11.25am on Tuesday. But the lift had another problem on Thursday when she got stuck again.

Mrs Crowther, who used to work on crime studies on behalf of the Home Office, is disabled. She has lymph cancer in both legs and heart problems.

In a statement Stannah Lifts said it came to help Mrs Crowther on Tuesday and recommended regular servicing. The statement said: "We understand being stuck in a lift can be very distressing and treat a person in this situation as a priority and will always send an engineer as soon as we can to free the person." They confirmed Mrs Crowther had not been charged for the callout.

They added: "We can confirm Mrs Crowther had a through-floor lift installed at her property on November 3, 2015, paid for by a grant from her local council. The lift came with a five-year extended warranty, which was further extended by three years in 2020, and this expired in November 2023."

Stannah said it acted "immediately" to help her on Tuesday. Their statement said: "We have reviewed the call we received on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, from Mrs Crowther and can attest that once Mrs Crowther had told our administrator she was stuck in the lift our administrator immediately informed Mrs Crowther she would get an engineer out to her."

They added: "Within nine minutes of completing the call an engineer had been dispatched. Upon the arrival of our engineer Mrs Crowther was no longer in the lift."

Stannah's statement added that when Mrs Crowther’s warranty was due to expire in November 2023 they sent her their service contract options by post and followed up with a phone call to talk her through those options. Their statement went on: "Mrs Crowther did not proceed with any service contract with us. We remain available to discuss these options.

"It is critical that lifts, like all complex mechanical and electrical equipment, are serviced regularly to maintain optimum performance. As per the manufacturer’s recommendations it is typical for this type of product to be serviced every six months. A service allows an engineer to check the safety features of the lift as well as clean, lubricate, and adjust all components."

The statement concluded: "Lift safety is of the utmost importance to us. We have one of the most robust safety procedures in the industry and our safety record is second to none."

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