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$5.7-million settlement in boy's elevator death
©Associated Press,
published August 14, 2001
PENSACOLA BEACH -- Family members of a 6-year-old boy killed in an elevator accident said Monday they will use part of a $5.7-million settlement to seek laws requiring state regulation of private elevators.
A lawsuit alleged that Colby Parker Dillin, of Fort Worth, Texas, was killed March 16, 1998, because one safety device was not installed and another malfunctioned in a Pensacola Beach home the family was visiting.
That allowed the elevator to run with its security gate open, permitting the boy to put his head between the cab and wall of the elevator shaft, the lawsuit said. Colby was looking down the shaft and his head was crushed as the rising elevator approached the next floor.
Family members said in a news release they planned to use the settlement, reached last week in circuit court, for charitable purposes and to promote private elevator regulation in Florida and other states.
Colby's father, Linden Dillin, a physician, and his 12-year-old sister, Ashley, who was present when her brother died, testified in April before a Florida Senate committee in favor of a bill that would require state inspection and certification of private elevators. The legislation failed to pass.
The state already regulates elevators in public buildings.
The settlement was agreed to by three companies involved in the manufacture and installation of the elevator and homeowners Michael and Kimberly McGartland. The amounts are $3.9-million from Bagby Elevator Co., $500,000 from Inclinator Co. of America, $300,000 from Napier Management Co. and $1-million from the McGartlands.
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