‘It was just a noise at first’…
When David Collins got a call from his mum saying the stairlift had been “making a bit of a noise”, he didn’t think much of it. “She was calm, not panicking,” he said. “She just said it had been jolting a little, and she was going to get it looked at.”
Margaret Collins, 84, had lived alone in her Staffordshire home since losing her husband in 2019. Her stairlift was her lifeline. But what no one realised was that a key internal part — worn down over time — had quietly reached the end of its life.
Margaret did what most of us would do. She booked a local engineer, who arrived the next day. He gave the machine a quick once-over, tightened a few screws, and told her it was “nothing serious.”
“She trusted him,” David said. “He was friendly. She even made him a cup of tea.” But the issue wasn’t loose screws. Deep inside the stairlift, a load-bearing gear had worn dangerously thin. It should have been replaced years ago — but no one told her. Three days later, on a quiet Sunday afternoon, Margaret got onto the stairlift to go up for her afternoon nap.
“She was halfway up when it jolted, then failed,” David said. “She fell backwards. It was a full tumble down 12 stairs.” She was rushed to hospital with a shattered hip and a severe head injury. For four days, she clung on. Her final words to her son were: “I thought it was fixed.”
Margaret died on Saturday 22nd March 2023, with her family at her bedside. Now, the Collins family is speaking out — not for sympathy, but to warn others.
David spoke to CJS Automation, the parts safety specialists, to share his story in the hope that others won’t wait until it’s too late. “We didn’t know stairlifts had internal parts that needed replacing over time,” he said. “We thought a service every now and then was enough. If we’d known the danger signs, we might have caught it in time.”
According to engineers at CJS Automation, certain components inside stairlifts — such as gears and brake units — can silently degrade over time without any obvious signs of damage. Many households assume that if a machine still runs, it must be safe. But David’s message is clear: “Don’t assume. Get it checked.”
The Collins family say they’ll continue to share Margaret’s story in the hope it prompts others to act. “If just one person gets their stairlift looked at because of this,” David said, “then maybe she’ll have saved someone’s life.”
