A TRAGIC accident led to the death of a man at a scrap metal yard at Heathfield, near Tavistock, an inquest in Okehampton heard last week.

Coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland heard that David John Facey, 48, of St Ann?s Chapel, died after being crushed underneath a Ford Cargo flatbed lorry at Sanders Scrapyard at around 5pm on Monday, January 6.

The inquest heard that Mr Facey and his nephew, John Lucas Facey, had been trying to start the lorry at the time of the incident, which was parked on the yard?s weighbridge.

John Facey said the lorry?s battery appeared to be flat, so his uncle attached a booster to the battery, situated under the lorry.

?He said for me to get in the lorry and turn the key,? said Mr Facey. ?I got into the cab and heard him shout. I jumped out of the cab and went round to the front and as I did so, I saw it begin to move forward.?

Mr Facey said he checked the handbrake was on before he started the engine. He could not explain how it became released. ?I had a coat on ? I could have knocked it off with the coat,? he said.

Paul Charley, vehicle examiner for Devon and Cornwall Police, told the

inquest an examination of the lorry?s handbrake ?did not reveal any failures which could have caused or contributed to this incident? and that the vehicle was in serviceable condition, reasonably maintained.

Henry Sanders, scrap merchant, said he had parked the lorry on the weighbridge to make space in the yard.

He said there had been ?no necessity? for Mr Facey to start the lorry ? and no need to get under the vehicle to attach a battery booster.

He said the British Scrap Metal Association had advised him that only one other similar incident had been reported in the last 40 years.

Roger Mounce, an agricultural engineer who was at the scrapyard at the time of the accident, told the inquest that as far as he knew, no-one had asked Mr Facey to start the lorry and he could see no reason why he got underneath the vehicle to attach the battery charger.

Tom Wake, an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive, said Mr Facey?s death was ?a very tragic case?.

?There was no reason for him to be under the lorry ? we will never know why,? he said.

The jury recorded a verdict of accidental death.