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Mechanic crushed by lift axle

12th September 2002
Page 13
Page 13, 12th September 2002 — Mechanic crushed by lift axle
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• A mechanic was crushed to death while examining a lorry on the hard shoulder of the MA after one of the vehicle's axles came down on his chest, an inquest was told last week.

Bristol Coroners' Court heard that in November last year driver Trevor Whiting had called the rescue services after his clutch failed on his vehicle.

Mechanic Leonardo Delazzari asked Whiting to raise the tractor's middle axle off the ground so that he could get underneath. But the axle had fallen before he had even managed to undo the nuts on the drive shaft.

PC Christopher Reilly, of Avon and Somerset Police, said there were two buttons inside the cab which could have raised the middle axle. However the first only worked if the tractor's remaining two axles were required to support less than io.000kg once the middle axle had been lifted—it was discovered later that the vehicle was carrying too much weight for it to work. The second button would work no matter how much weight the tractor had to support. said Reilly.

Whiting did not say which button he had pressed but admitted that he had not read the instruction manual for the vehicle, which was locked away.

An inquest jury returned a verdict of misadventure.


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