China lift-shaft plunge death was accident - inquest.

Byline: Kim Pilling [email protected]

AN EMPLOYEE of sports technology firm Hawk-Eye plunged to his death down a lift shaft at a tennis stadium in China, an inquest has heard.

Robin Llyr Evans, 20, was working on preparations for the electronic line-calling system at last year's WTA Wuhan Open when the accident happened, the inquest in Caernarfon heard.

Days ahead of the women's tournament starting, Mr Evans arrived at the 15,000-seater Optics Valley International Tennis Centre in the city of Wuhan and was asked to bring technical equipment to colleagues working in the ceiling roof void.

But the systems operator and a fellow employee lost their way around the top-tier catwalk, the inquest heard.

When they attempted to find their way back, Mr Evans apparently mistook the lift-shaft panel for an exit point and died from head injuries after it gave way and he fell.

Mr Evans, a former youth rugby player with Pwllheli, was travelling the world working for Hawk-Eye Innovations while on a year out from his mechanical engineering degree at Loughborough University.

Co-worker Emily Davies told the hearing that she and Mr Evans had arrived in China the day before the accident on September 24 for the tournament, which featured Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams and Johanna Konta.

Their role was to make sure the television cameras were working for the system where players challenge line calls, she said.

Ms Davies said the pair went up a ladder to get to the roof area, walked across a beam and then on to a circular catwalk.

She said: "We didn't know where the others were. We didn't know which way to go round. I think we chose the wrong direction because we couldn't find the others. They thought we had taken too long so they had gone down."

Ms Davies said they were trying to locate where they had entered as she looked through the slats in the catwalk to the tennis court below.

She said: "Robin said he had found the exit point so I turned to look at the floor to see if we were in the right spot and that is when I heard a crash. Then I turned around and I couldn't see him."

Ms Davies said she did not see any warning signs, although some have since been put in place.

North West Wales Coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones asked her: "Do you recall anything which would indicate where it was safe to stand on and where you should not?" The witness replied: "No." Mr Evans' father, Gareth, told the hearing: "The important thing for us is to know what happened and to make sure it does not happen again to anybody."

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Pritchard Jones said: "He must have stood on this panel thinking it was a safe way to get round but the panel was the top cap of the lift shaft. It could not support his weight and he fell."

He said he had no powers to make recommendations to the Chinese authorities about health and safety procedures, and said he thought they would probably ignore him anyway because it was, he said, one of numerous countries that do not co-operate with coroners in this country.

Mr Evans and his wife, Menai, from Llanbedrog, near Pwllheli, did not wish to comment.

CAPTION(S):

Robin Llyr Evans worked for sports technology company Hawk-Eye