Father crushed to death by digger
A man was trapped and crushed to death by the digger he was working on at a Staffordshire farm, an inquest heard.
A man was trapped and crushed to death by the digger he was working on at a Staffordshire farm, an inquest heard.
A verdict of accidental death was returned by a jury at the inquest on 46-year-old Mark Palmer, of Wolverhampton Road, Cannock, yesterday.
Mr Palmer – dubbed a 'gentle giant' – was fitting an extra hydraulic line into a digger at Wells Dairy Farm, in Bradley, near Penkridge, when the accident happened around 8am on March 7, 2008, the inquest heard yesterday.
South Staffordshire Coroner Andrew Haigh and a jury heard Mr Palmer was working for Hydraline Engineering, based on the Martindale Industrial Estate, Hawks Green, Cannock, and had been called in by another contractor, Westwood Plant Ltd to do the specialist work for them on behalf of B H Holt and Sons, based at the farm. Health and Safety Executive inspector Wayne Owen told how CCTV footage showed the father-of-two lift the arms of the Volvo loading shovel L70D up so he could start working without putting any extra supports in place.
After several minutes, the video shows the arm coming down, trapping Mr Palmer against the body of the digger. He was found at 11.25am by Roger Westwood, of Westwood Plant Ltd.
The cause of death was traumatic asphyxia.
Mr Owen said he had health and safety concerns because Mr Palmer was working under the machine with its arms raised with no support. He said: "If I saw work being done on an unsupported boom I would stop it.
"The main concern is Mr Palmer was working under an unsupported bucket and boom and in those circumstances any failure of pressure in the hydraulics could cause the bucket to fall." He said while there was a generic risk assessment made by the business, there was no risk assessment made about this specific job or site.
Christopher John Bevington, of Cannock, a director of Hydraline, said the normal way to raise the arms to be able to work on the machine would be to "crowd over" the bucket and use that to lift the digger and they did not understand why Mr Palmer did not do so.
But Mr Owen told the court engineers from the HSE and Volvo said the correct way to work on the machine would be to fit supporting arms to lift the machine. A HSE investigation is ongoing.
After the accident Mr Palmer's wife Toni said her husband was very popular and was always the life and soul of the party.
She said "He was a gentle giant and a man who loved life and his family."
