Deaths in 2007

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FURTHER DETAILS OF DEATHS

Michael, who ran a haulage and plant machinery business from his farm in Heap Brow, Bury, was crushed by his own lorry after leaving the handbrake off.

Michael Booker became trapped between his vehicle and the front steps of a house after trying to climb into the cab.

The inquest was held at the West Yorkshire Eastern District Coroner's Court on 28 June 2007 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

Recording the verdict, deputy coroner Richard Manning said, 'Unhappily, for whatever reason, Mr Booker had forgotten to put the handbrake on. When the lorry started to roll, he rushed after it, but trying to climb on to the lorry was impossible. Mr Booker would not have suffered, he died immediately of cerebral lacerations and skull fractures.'

Michael was travelling with a colleague when they had pulled in at a bus stop near Leeds to ask for directions. He climbed out to chat to someone and left the lorry's engine running. Minutes later, the lorry, loaded with heavy road equipment, began to roll and Michael ran after it.

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Steven died in hospital after sustaining serious head injuries in a building site incident two days earlier. He was working on creating a new waste-recycling centre in Bradford when the accident, believed to have involved lifting machinery, occurred.

Steven worked for Skipton-based building and engineering company JN Bentley, which he had joined as a 16-year-old apprentice.

The inquest is to be held at the West Yorkshire Western District Coroner's Court on a date yet to be set.

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Younis died after being shot while driving his cab in Sheffield. He was killed by a single shot through the window of his car as he drove down Scott Road, in the Pitsmoor area of the city, in the early hours.

In April 2008 brothers Ashley Cohen and David Cohen were found guilty of Younis's murder and were jailed for life at Sheffield Crown Court after a five-week trial.

Both brothers had planned the killing, the court heard. They had initially wanted to kill Younis's son, Imran, after finding out that he had taken a gun to David Cohen's house in revenge for trouble at a Sheffield nightclub.

David Ashmore had already been found guilty of perverting the course of justice and was jailed for three years and six months.

Although it was not clear which of the Cohen brothers pulled the trigger they were both found guilty of the murder.

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Norman died at his farm in Gunnerside, Swaledale. He is believed to have been gored by a young bull when he entered a cattle pen to check for missing ear tags.

The inquest was held at the North Yorkshire Western District Coroner's Court in Richmond on 19 June 2007 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

The hearing was told was told that Norman's body was discovered by a neighbour in the utility room of the farmhouse. It is believed that he staggered from the yard before he collapsed.

A post-mortem examination showed that Norman died from crush injuries to his chest, lungs and liver.

Charles Challis, an inspector with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), told the hearing that Norman had probably entered a pen with three in-calf cows and a two-year-old Belgian blue cross limousin bull.

It is not unusual for beef bulls and cows to be housed together and the cows were unlikely to attack because they had not yet calved. Mr Challis said, 'A young bull is very playful, has a strong head and it will butt. It may have simply gored him or rolled him along the ground playfully, rather than aggressively. With a bull, there is not much difference between play and aggression sometimes.'

HSE guidance was to separate a bull from cows before entering a pen, or to have someone on hand to watch the bull, the hearing heard. Although dairy bulls were more aggressive than beef animals, most bull accidents investigated by the HSE involved beef cattle because farmers were generally not as wary of them.

Mr Challis said, 'I would remind farmers that a beef bull can be a dangerous animal. Often it is a home-reared animal that the farmer has grown up with, but the point comes when it matures and is a strong and potentially dangerous male animal prepared to show its dominance.'

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Patrycjusz, from Szezecin in Poland, suffered 80 per cent burns in an explosion at Transition International on Penistone Road on 14 March, when his synthetic fibre top burnt for 12 minutes at boiling point on his skin. He died three days later at the Northern General Hospital from multiple organ failure as a result of his burns.

The inquest was held at the South Yorkshire West Coroner's Court 8 July 2008 when a Narrative verdict was returned.

The jury ruled that wearing a protective jacket and trousers would have 'significantly improved the chances of survival'. They also found Patrycjusz had not received any induction training in the correct use of the gear, and highlighted errors in enforcing the safety uniform. No warning signs had been put up in the workplace, there was a lack of disciplinary procedures for those flouting the rules, and there was a dependency on verbal instructions rather than written.

Patrycjusz was working the night shift as a melter at the factory. His duties included loading scrap metal into an electric induction furnace in the foundry floor, but the jury found he had not received training warning him about the dangers of getting water or other contaminants inside the furnace.

Their narrative verdict said there was 'no evidence of any written instructions given to the dangers of water or contaminants'. It added there were 'conflicting oral procedures', instead of written ones, in place to prevent contaminants getting inside.

The jury found the probable cause of the fire was water inside the furnace from the drums of metal stored outside. That caused the 'huge explosion', as described by fellow worker Anthony Brough, who was the only other staff member on duty on the night of the incident. He said he found Patrycjusz in a 'ball of flames' on the floor close to the furnace.

One paramedic who attended at the scene said Patrycjusz was so badly burnt he only realised he was white when he took off his socks. Mr Brough also told the hearing he was so concerned about health and safety issues at the factory - including the language barrier that existed between him and Patrycjusz - he had met his union rep for advice and wrote a letter to the firm's managing director.

After the inquest Andrzej Handzel, Patrycjusz's father, said he hoped lessons had been learned. He said the jury's verdict was 'faithful' and 'full of justice' and added, 'My son's death was a really terrible accident and I want lessons to be taken from it because the conditions in the foundry were not good. I would like the owners of the companies to put in efforts to improve them so more lives are not taken.'

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Kristopher, a waste management worker, known as 'Biddy' to his friends, was crushed to death when an articulated lorry with no reversing warning system drove over him at the Associated Waste Management (AWM) tip in Canal Road, Bradford.

Kristopher suffered massive internal injuries and multiple broken bones when he went under the wheels of the 16-tonne wagon.

The inquest was held at the West Yorkshire Western District Coroner's Court on 27 February 2008 when a verdict of death by 'Misadventure' was returned.

Truck driver Ivan Lee, who worked for AWM, had been visiting the busy yard to drop off a large container and, spotting a space to manoeuvre into, had reversed his wagon into it.

Mr Lee told the inquest he never realised he had run over Kristopher, saying he was 'absolutely gutted and baffled' as to how the tragedy could have happened while he was reversing 'slower than walking speed'.

After initially running down Kristopher, he drove back over his body, unaware that he was beneath his wagon's wheels.

Following a joint investigation with West Yorkshire Police, health and safety inspector Norman Robins, told the Bradford inquest the lorry had: * No reversing alarm * No rear external CCTV and * A broken rear reverse light He also revealed that, at the time of the fatality, the yard did not have a designated safe area for those working on foot.

Mr Lee had also not used a banksman - a guide to help vehicles reverse - while attempting to drop off the container, the inquest was told.

Giving evidence, collision investigator PC Russell Windross said, 'I consider that, had the vehicle been fitted with a reversing alarm, the pedestrian would have been made aware of the reversing vehicle.'

Following the accident, AWM employed a health and safety consultant and has introduced warning alarms and CCTV on all wagons, the inquest heard.

James Willoughby, a solicitor for the Dixon family, revealed that the site had been the scene of another fatality when a company director had been struck by a wagon while speaking on his mobile phone. AWM did not operate from the yard at the time and, since then, mobile phones have been banned.

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Trevor died in an incident involving a mini-digger at a cricket club in North Yorkshire. Trevor was found dead at Bilton Cricket Club in Bilton Lane, Harrogate.

The Environmental Health Department of Harrogate Borough Council started an investigation into the incident.

The inquest was held at the North Yorkshire Western District Coroner's Court on 9 April 2008 when a verdict of 'Misadventure' was returned.

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Tim Hanson

Tim died after falling off scaffolding into the street in Bradford Road, Idle, while working at a modern terraced house.

Any inquest is to be held at the North Yorkshire Western District Coroner's Court on a date yet to be set.

In 2006 Bradford was named as having some of the most dangerous building sites in the UK after Health and Safety Executive (HSE) spot checks found one in three to be unsafe. It resulted in work being stopped at 22 of the 61 sites inspected.

Tim's death follows that of Steven Allen, another construction worker, in Bradford earlier in 2008.

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Gordon Duffield

Gordon suffered fatal crush injuries under the back wheels of the 32-tonne tipper truck on Fitzwilliam Road, Rotherham. Gordon was known to suffer from industrial deafness but was still working as a tar layer. He died later the same day.

The inquest was held at the South Yorkshire East Coroner's Court 14 January 2008 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

Gordon was walking backwards and would have been bent over to pour a strip of tar where a fresh batch of asphalt was to be laid when he was hit by the reversing lorry, said to be travelling at about 2mph.

Colleagues told the inquest they knew he had received compensation for industrial deafness and a noise expert from the HSE calculated he would not have been able to hear the audible beeper from the lorry, although someone with normal hearing would have heard.

Lorry driver John Walker said he was using all his mirrors as he backed up towards the asphalt laying machine but never saw Gordon.

In 2006 Bradford was named as having some of the most dangerous building sites in the UK after Health and Safety Executive (HSE) spot checks found one in three to be unsafe. It resulted in work being stopped at 22 of the 61 sites inspected.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) spokesman said it was too early to say if Rotherham Council or the tipper lorry owners would be prosecuted for possible safety breaches.

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Paul Grierson

Paul, the director of his own company Greenfield Northern Ltd, was about to fit fascia boards to the gable roof of the property on the Harden Mews development off Whiphill Lane on 4 June when he fell 28ft to the ground.

He suffered serious pelvic and rib injuries which resulted in organ and respiratory failure two weeks later.

The inquest was held at the South Yorkshire East Coroner's Court 7 January 2008 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

Due to the interlude between the fall and his death, the Health and Safety Executive were unable to examine the scaffolding because it had been dismantled in the intervening period.

Paul’s son Ben, who worked as a labourer for his dad, witnessed the fall and said there were no previous problems with the scaffold tower.

Doncaster Deputy Coroner Fred Curtis said, 'No-one was able to examine the scaffolding on that plot because no-one contemplated it would lead to Mr Grierson’s death.'

The ladder up to the scaffolding was not secured and did not have a block at the bottom but other people had used it that day and found nothing wrong.

Ben Grierson, who was standing only 7ft away, saw the outer edge of the scaffold board flip up and two other boards also fall away. After being taken to hospital Paul was never well enough to offer his own explanation of what had happened.

'There was no expert investigation on the day and it may well be there was a problem about which we shall never know. There could have been a problem with materials or human error or it may have been a completely freak incident which involved the board flipping up,' said Mr Curtis.

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An RAF Puma helicopter crash in North Yorkshire on land to the west of Catterick Garrison army base led to the deaths of David, a flight lieutenant, Phillip a sergeant and Sean an army private. David and Phillip were two of the three RAF flight crew while Sean was one of nine army personnel.

David and Phillip died in the crash and Sean, who was among the injured, died two days later.

There were 10 injured people were taken to hospitals in Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Darlington and Northallerton. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Puma came from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire.

Any inquest will be held at the North Yorkshire Eastern District Coroner's Court.

MoD spokesman Michael Mulford said the helicopter would have been flying 'in support of the army in some sort of manoeuvres or training'.

The same helicopter type was involved in an accident in Iraq in April 2007, in which two British servicemen were killed after two RAF Pumas collided.

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Alwyne, a site worker, was fatally struck by the bucket of an extractor digger at Drax Power Station on 28 September 2007. He died from his injuries three days later, on October 1.

Alwyne was working on the site as a contractor for Grimsby-based building firm Clark Construction.

In April 2008 at Leeds Crown Court, Michael Roys, an excavator operator, pleaded guilty to Alwyne's manslaughter.

Alwyne was struck by a bucket that fell from the semi-automatic quick hitch on the excavator Roys was operating.

Dale Harris, representing Roys, told the court, 'The defendant is a man of good character. I would ask for an adjournment for pre-sentence reports and make a request for a psychiatric report.'

The case was adjourned until June 27 when Roys, of Doncaster, will be sentenced. He was granted bail. Judge James Stewart QC said, 'That doesn't give any indication of what will happen to you.'

Any inquest will be held at the North Yorkshire Western District Coroner's Court.

There were four similar fatalities last year involving semi-automatic quick hitches and the Health and Safety Executive issued a safety alert about their use in December 2007. It is expected that when the new Machinery Directive comes into force it will prohibit the use of semi-automatic quick hitches on new machines but not on the existing fleet.

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Colin, a farmer, whose body was found in a field at his farm, Cockerdale in Oldstead, near Kilburn, is believed to have fallen from his quad bike.

The inquest was held at the North Yorkshire Eastern District Coroner's Court in February 2008 when a verdict of 'Accidental Death' was returned.

Coroner John Broadbridge recorded the verdict after listening to evidence from acting traffic sergeant Tim Alderson and consultant pathologist Dr Mohammad Musa. He said, 'I'm satisfied on the balance of probabilities that he has died as a result of an accident due to loss of control of his quad vehicle due to a medical event. It was a sudden medical event, probably a cardiac arrest or arrhythmia, that was the reason for him to depart from the safe and natural route that he would normally I'm sure have taken.'

Acting Traffic Sergeant Tim Alderson said he believed the quad bike was going up and across a steep field when the incident occurred. He said, 'The nearside wheels slipped off the exposed boulders causing the angle of the quad bike to alter sharply. It rolled completely over and Mr Furness was thrown towards his left and then harshly back towards the slope. The machine came to rest on top of him.'

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