Accidental death verdict
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• A tipper driver was crushed to death by a reversing HGV which did not appear to have an audible warning signal, a Birmingham inquest has heard.
A jury returned a verdict of accidental death on Nicholas Coffer, 59, of Sally Oak, Birmingham, who was working for Smyth Tipper Services in Holyhead Road, Birmingham when the incident occurred at around 07:00hrs an 24 November 1990.
City Coroner Dr Richard Whittington told the inquest that Golfer was talking to a colleague in the dark at the Smyth firm as a truck was reversing slowly. Coffer was crushed against a parked truck and died of multiple injuries in the City Hospital.
Whittington told the jury that the audible warning fitted to the reversing truck had an intermittent fault and there was no evidence to suggest It was working at the time.
Had the audible warning been working it is probable that Mr Golfer and the person he was talking to would have been aware at an early stage of the approaching vehicle," he said. But he added that there was no suggestion of any criminal act nor any prosecution by the Health & Safety Executive.