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News & Star | News | Carlisle man crushed to death by colleague's reversing truck - inquest
A young Carlisle man was crushed to death as he guided a colleague who was reversing a truck towards a scaffolding tower.
Gary Mellor photo
Gary Mellor
Gary Mellor, 20, sustained a ruptured liver when he was caught between the back of the wagon and scaffolding on a building site in North Road, Aspatria, on May 7 last year.
An inquest yesterday heard evidence from Aaron Turnbull, the colleague who was at the wheel of the flatbed lorry – even though he did not have a licence to drive it on a public road.
The men were working for Carlisle firm M&M Scaffolding at the time.
As Mr Mellor’s parents listened intently, the inquest heard a transcript of the interview Mr Turnbull, 29, gave to police.
He told officers his boss Michael Graham drove the 18-tonne lorry used for transporting the scaffolding to Aspatria while he drove there in a works van – an account challenged by another witness.
He recalled then jumping into the lorry so he could reverse it to a part-built house surrounded by scaffolding, guided by Mr Mellor.
“I said watch us back on to the loading bay, and he watched me back on the passenger side,” he told officers.
He said that Mr Mellor kept waving him on but he then quickly tried to “squeeze past” the gap to the rear of the wagon.
“It was just that quick – it was a split second,” he said, when asked why he was not able to stop.
The vehicle hit Mr Mellor, and Mr Turnbull said he braked and pulled forwards.
Mr Mellor ran to the side of the scaffolding and collapsed. He died a short time later. Mr Turnbull said his boss later told him it wasn’t his fault.
He claimed his boss said he had seen Mr Mellor “two or three times” behind a wagon, and had told him: “You don’t go behind a wagon ever.”
Noel Dilworth, for M&M Scaffolding, asked Mr Turnbull, who no longer works for the firm, why he drove the wagon since Mr Graham had said he was not allowed to.
Mr Turnbull replied: “Most people drive it; all the people move wagons. I have not been told I’m not allowed to move wagons.”
He denied driving the wagon to Aspatria from the M&M yard in Carlisle.
Dean Shaw, who at the time also worked for M&M Scaffolding, said he was one of Gary Mellor’s best friends.
He told the inquest that on the morning of the accident he saw Mr Turnbull drive the scaffolding wagon out of the M&M yard in Carlisle, with Mr Mellor in one passenger seat .
Asked how he could be sure it was the day Mr Mellor had died, he replied: “Because it was the last time I saw him.”
He said he left the firm because wages were poor and he got “no respect” from the boss Michael Graham.
Bricklayer Simon Todd, who was working at the site, told police that the person who drove the wagon to the site had been a “muscular lad in his early 20s,” who had had trouble reversing. In evidence, he said he never said that.
The inquest also heard from police accident investigator PC Michael Lazonby.
His examination found a problem with the lorry’s system of wing mirrors.
In the conclusion of his accident report, PC Lazonby said: “It is my opinion that the position of the rear view mirrors as set at the time of this examination would be likely to contribute to the cause of this accident because they don’t provide adequate rear view.”
“There is not other method available to obtain a rearward view. There is no window in the rear of the cab and it’s not fitted with any other method such as a rearward camera.”
The inquest also heard from Gary Mellor’s mother Margo Mellor, who recalled the last time she saw her son on the morning of his death.
She said: “He was really cheerful, really chirpy.”
Pathologist Dr Mary Jenkins said traces of cannabis were found in Mr Mellor’s body after his death, adding that the drug may have made him react “a bit slower” than would otherwise be the case.
The hearing resumes today.
First published at 11:30, Wednesday, 21 December 2011
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