Now mother Frida is fighting to change the law: “Want to see a ban”
Updated 10:36 | Posted 10:12 am
Two months have passed since Frida Dahlin lost her son Nima in the tragic elevator accident in Gothenburg. Now she is fighting to change the law – so that what happened to Nima cannot happen to more children.
Nima was just fantastic. Fantastic and happy, says Frida Dahlin.
The disaster happened on an ordinary Wednesday morning in May. Frida Dahlin and her five-year-old son Nima were first going to preschool and then to the dentist. But on the way there, Nima got stuck in the elevator in the apartment building in central Gothenburg.
During the rescue operation, he fell five floors down the elevator shaft. Nima was treated at Sahlgrenska hospital, but his life could not be saved. For mother Frida, a shocking period of mourning began.
It has been like a constant roller coaster. It goes from day to day, morning to night, it has been terribly tough, she says.
After Nima’s death, Frida has gathered support from those around her. She has a large network of family and friends, and has also been in continuous contact with the association We as lost children.
There is support to be had, in society via associations and through family ties, and I include my best friends and many loved ones that we call family. We are many and many are trying to do a lot.
In parallel with the mourning work, Frida Dahlin has started working for a change in the law, which she calls “Lex Nima”. She wants to see a total ban on the kind of elevator that Nima was killed in. The Elevator Association has previously stated that Sweden has Europe’s oldest elevator stock, and Frida Dahlin thinks the situation is “remarkable”.
Sweden invests in infrastructure and safety, but somewhere elevators have not kept up with the development. An elevator must be safe, not just meet mechanical requirements.
After the accident, Housing Minister Andreas Carlsson (KD) told P4 Gothenburg that the government is “working on the issue at a high pace”.
I understand that change takes time. At the same time, I would have liked to see a ban on such lifts as early as today. I have lost my baby, my Nima, in an elevator in our stairwell. A devastating accident like this must not happen.
The landlord who owns the property where Nima and Frida lived has told Göteborgs-Posten that all lifts of the model that were in Nima and Frida’s house must be replaced. The elevator had been installed in 1939, and a neighbor that Aftonbladet spoke to shortly after the accident demanded a change in the law even then.
How exactly it happened when Nima died is not yet clear, and the rescue operation is being investigated by the police.
The investigation is ongoing, there is nothing more to say about it, says Frida Dahlin.
Frida likes to talk about her son, Nima. The five-year-old boy who loved to swim, learn languages and count stones.
It is a small individual who is one’s whole world. I have always talked about Nima. Who Nima is, what our everyday life looks like, what the weeks and weekends will be like. Nima… ah god, it’s like never-ending.
In 2022, Nima received an autism diagnosis. His mother says that made her very particular about taking one thing at a time with him.
I have come to think that we have a different everyday thing. But it is clear that it is foreign, there is an ignorance of autism in society. So I’ve had to be his speech and explain to other children when they ask, for example, why Nima doesn’t talk so much.
He has taught me an incredible amount, he was, is, incredibly smart. He was always happy, he was never fussy. Nima was just amazing. Fantastic and happy, says Frida Dahlin.