A student died in a “tragic accident” involving gym equipment, an inquest has heard.
Mohammed Farraj, a 21-year-old medical student, was using a Smith machine – a weightlifting apparatus with a bar that moves vertically on rails – at the university’s Sportspark gym on the evening of October 16, 2024.
Mr Farraj had placed a plastic aerobic step beneath his feet to perform calf raises.
CCTV footage of the incident, described by Detective Sergeant Robert Waring as a "tragic accident", showed Mr Farraj using the step while working with the Smith machine.
The plastic step tipped, causing him to slip and the weighted bar to drop, striking his head. The force of the bar forced his neck to the ground.
The aerobic step was not part of the Smith machine apparatus.
Mr Waring said a safety feature on the machine was a set of adjustable stops which “should be set to the highest position possible” to stop the weight bar.
He said they had been “left in the very lowest position”.
He also described the use of the plastic step as “incorrect” and said it was “intended for a different purpose”, and that a weight disk could have been used instead.
Norfolk assistant coroner Johanna Thompson, concluding that Mr Farraj’s death was an accident, said that “safety stops on the equipment hadn’t been appropriately adjusted prior to” Mr Farraj performing his calf raise exercises.
“He used a step aerobic block to stand on,” she said.
“In doing so he slipped, causing the weight he had been lifting to fall onto him. This resulted in him sustaining a fatal head injury.”
Gym user Dr Trey Koev said he had been “less than two metres away” from Mr Farraj, using another piece of gym equipment – the incline bench press – interchangeably with his gym partner.
He said Mr Farraj had been using the Smith machine “with a stepping platform to perform calf raises”.
“All of a sudden whilst my gym partner was finishing his set I saw him slip onto the platform,” said Dr Koev, who is a research scientist at UEA.
“The bar carrying the weight came down.”
He said Mr Farraj “struggled to his feet very rapidly then tumbled, then both my gym partner and I rushed to him as we were the closest to him”.
Dr Koev said there had been red-coloured weights on either end of the bar – indicating 25kg each – and the bar weighed approximately 15kg, with the total weight as 65kg.
He said he “heard a loud bang of the bar landing down”.
Dr Koev’s gym partner, Dr Damian Laba, said he was using the bench press when he heard a bang, “stood up and turned round and saw Mohammed collapsing on the floor”.
Dr Laba, who is a consultant anaesthetist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said he “saw blood coming out of (Mr Farraj’s) nose and mouth”.
“I realised this is potentially a life-threatening injury and I shouted for help to the Sportspark staff, to the reception,” he said, adding that he attempted CPR before Mr Farraj died at the scene.
Benjamin Price, head of sports operations at UEA Sportspark, said: “It appears Mohammed followed another person who had been using that equipment.
“It appears they had put the stops at the lowest level to perform the exercise they had chosen to perform – a hip thrust exercise.”
He said that it appeared a warning about the stops had not been on the Smith machine at the time, but was now in place.
The inquest was told Mr Farraj had a fast-track induction to the gym in October 2022.
His father, Hashim Farraj, said in a statement read by the coroner’s officer that his son was a devout Muslim and “loved life”.
He said his son grew up at the family home in Stoke-on-Trent, was part of a boxing club and “took his fitness and his health very seriously”.
“He liked to go to the gym and would run 10k in the morning on a regular basis,” he said.
He added that he had been training for an Ironman triathlon event.
The coroner extended her condolences to the family and friends of Mr Farraj.
The UEA Sportspark said in a statement after the conclusion of the inquest in Norwich that it was “deeply saddened” by the death of Mr Farraj.
“The safety of our gym’s users is, and always will be, our priority,” the statement continued.
“Following this incident, a full investigation took place, by the police and the HSE, who were both satisfied with the arrangements in place.
“UEA Sportspark has co-operated with fully the coroner’s inquiry and acknowledges the conclusion of the inquest.”
