Probes to try establish how toddler died in Galway lift shaft

A number of separate investigations are to be carried out at the scene of a fatal accident yesterday afternoon in which a toddler died when he got trapped in a lift shaft in a city centre building.

Three year-oldn Solomon Soremekun was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident at the Hynes Building in Augustine Street.

The offices will be closed to the public today as at least two separate investigations are carried out, by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and a coroner’s report which is to be completed by the Gardaí.

The scene was sealed off immediately after the boy’s body was removed and brought to University Hospital Galway.

The alarm was raised shortly after 3pm when a young mother realised her toddler son had got stuck in the lift shaft of the three storey building, which houses the RTE Regional studios, the City Library and the Social Welfare offices.

The little boy was on his own when he become trapped and suffered fatal injuries.

An ambulance and two units of Galway Fire Brigade, as well as a number of Gardaí, were on the scene within minutes and a rescue operation was launched.

However, the boy did not survive the accident and what started as a rescue operation turned into a recovery operation.

It took the emergency services personnel 40 minutes to retrieve the boy’s body.

The body was taken to University College Hospital where a post mortem examination will be carried out.

Meanwhile, his Nigerian mother and her other three children, who live in the Doughiska area, were consoled in one of the Social Welfare Offices upstairs, where she had had a meeting before the tragic accident.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel