HSE probe dumper truck driver's death at Dittisham

HEALTH and safety investigators are looking at further action against a South Devon recycling centre following the Torquay inquest into the death of young dumper driver Ben Sewell.

Coroner Ian Arrow recorded a verdict of accidental death after hearing how Ben, 30, died of serious injuries when he was thrown from the seat of his truck on a steeply sloping, bumpy track at the Dittisham Recycling Centre near Dartmouth.

Ben, who lived with his parents in Seymour Drive, Dartmouth, was not wearing his lap seatbelt and had been told off for speeding around the site by the last person to see him alive at the privately-run site at Lapthorne Cross.

Health and Safety Executive inspector David Cory told the inquest: 'If he had been wearing the lap belt, he would not have parted company with the dumper truck and he would not have died.'

After the inquest, Mr Cory said the HSE took some formal actions against the site at the time of the fatality, including prohibition orders on vehicles and on the other dumper driver until he had been re-trained.

'Now we will review the evidence and make a final determination about further enforcement action,' he said.

During his evidence, Mr Cory said neither Ben or the other young dumper driver at the centre, Rhys Hickman, had been properly trained.

Ben's parents Paul and Johanna Sewell and sister Victoria said: 'We would like to make sure that all the safety issues that have been raised today are implemented.

'We are glad it's all over. It's been a long time. The outcome is the outcome we expected.

'It's been hard listening to it today. It's worse somehow than reading about it.'

The last person to see Ben alive was builder Sam Churchill who said he swore at Ben: 'He came towards me and slammed on the brakes and skidded up to the front of my truck.

'He could have wiped out my van with his six tonne truck.

'There were a few choice words. I said he was going a bit too fast.

'He was just happy and in good spirits and laughed. He drove off again at a very fast speed through the steel gates.

'I was watching because he was driving so fast and recklessly but I lost sight of him because of the dust. It was a really dry day.

'He was bouncing half a foot out of his seat as he drove over the divets in the ground. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

'He was holding the wheel with his left hand and his right arm was holding on to a bar.

'I guess it was a sort of showing-off manner and he might have been in a hurry to get back to the bottom of the site.'

Ben's colleagues, father and son Graham and Rhys Hickman, were the other people working with him on the day of the accident.

They told how they saw a black plume of smoke and raced to find Ben lying about 20 metres away from the truck which was lying on its side further down the steep gradient.

Devon Air Ambulance paramedic Haydn Glanville, from Dartmouth, was first on the scene.

He found Ben still breathing but seriously injured and worked for 20 minutes to try to save Ben's life, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Home Office pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffery said Ben was a young, fit man. Toxicology showed no drugs, drink or medication in his body.

The primary cause of death was given as chest injuries.

The owner of the recycling site was not present at the inquest.

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