Poor machine maintenance may have played part in crushed Dudley driver death
Poor maintenance of machinery used to unload goods from a lorry is likely to have contributed to the death of a delivery driver crushed at a Dudley shopping centre, an inquest has heard.
Gary Pickering died when his head became trapped between the back of his lorry and its tail lift.
Health and Safety Executive investigator Dr Dominic Swan told a jury that the tail lift was in a poor state of repair and that Mr Pickering should never have been able to put his head between it and the lorry.
The inquest at Smethwick Council House heard Mr Pickering, who was 34, had leaned down in order to try and lower the tail lift into the correct position in the delivery area of Home Bargains in the Churchill Precinct after it became stuck on the loading bay. But it then jolted back to an upright position, trapping the driver.
Dr Swan also said examination of the machinery, only installed months earlier, revealed a vital anti-lock bolt was missing.
He said the 'crush zone', which was where Mr Pickering placed his head, was directly attributable to the missing bolt and that the tail lift could only slam shut if it was wasn't there. Mr Pickering, from Swinton, Manchester, was discovered two hours after the incident, which happened at 2am on September 10, 2013, by a security guard.
He had only joined the company three months earlier and was said to have been 'made up' when he got the job. He was father to Casey, then aged four.
Dr Swan said: "It is my opinion that the tail lift was in a poor state of repair. Being able to place a part of the body at the rear of the lorry is inherently unsafe. There was a foreseeable risk of being crushed by the tail lift. If there had not been a crush zone, the accident would not have occurred."
He also said drivers should have been supervised when making deliveries.
Mark Balysz, acting on behalf of TJ Morris, questioned Dr Swan's criticisms and presented evidence of a warning sticker attached to the tail lift saying drivers should stand to the side while operating it.
He said: "It was the fact his head was between the platform and the vehicle. It was the fact he wasn't operating it by standing to the side of the vehicle, he was operating leaning down, which was important."
A statement released on behalf of Mr Pickering's widow said: "Sharon Pickering has been left devastated by her husband's death and says she wants the inquest to discover exactly how the incident occurred and what steps can be taken to ensure a similar accident is not able to happen again."
The inquest continues.
