As I write this month’s Mover magazine, I am haunted by the tragic case of the two Polish lads who were killed while trying to lift a sofa over a balcony in Knightsbridge. It seems to me that it was an accident, if any of us are allowed to have an accident any more. But is it an accident from which moving professionals can learn?

Tomasz Procko and Karol Szymanski, were not moving professionals.  They were not movers at all apparently. They were builders who were renovating the house.  For all I know they just offered someone a hand. In the last few days I have received comments saying how these type of cowboys give the industry a bad name. That seems harsh to me.

If they had been working for a moving company that might have been different.  It would be reasonable to expect a professional mover to have done better.  But how, exactly, would you have done it?

Some might say you should use an external lift.  But there might not have been the time or the cash available to do that.  Someone suggested using two ladders; but that would have put strain on the railings too.  I even had the suggestion of swinging the sofa from the window above which seems to me to be a great way of making the problem worse, not better.

Let us assume that taking it up the stairs or an internal lift was not an option.  How would you professional movers have lifted a heavy sofa over 150-year-old railings, without risking an accident?  I will publish your answers next month and, hopefully, your advice will save other mothers’ sons from a similar fate.

Answers please to editor@themover.co.uk