Death crash farmer had no seatbelt, inquest hears
A farmer who died after a crash on a country road was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident, an inquest has heard.
Norman Leslie Ford, of Aldersley Lane, Prees, died after losing control of the pick-up vehicle and trailer he was using to transport three cows on July 18 this year.
The collision happened on the B5476 at Coton, near Whitchurch, around 10 minutes away from Sandy Lane Farm, Prees, where he worked with his son, Anthony.
Coroner John Ellery recorded a verdict of accidental death at an inquest in Shrewsbury yesterday.
Visiting
He said there had been no driver error, but Mr Ford would have survived the crash had he been wearing a seatbelt.
The 67-year-old had been travelling with farm worker Richard Roberts and vet Christopher Julio Martinez-Justo, who had been visiting the farm to carry out tests for Bovine TB on the cattle.
The three cows had been loaded into a trailer to be moved to a field near Coton Wood. Mr Roberts, who had been sitting in the back of the pick-up vehicle, said he had seen the rear end of the trailer veer towards the kerb moments before the crash.
Mr Martinez-Justo, who had been in the front seat, said: "The trailer started to wobble and I heard Mr Ford say 'Take this steady girls', talking about the cows. I believe the cows must have been moving around."
He said the accident happened moments later.
"I remember being scared and thinking we were going to die," Mr Martinez-Justo said.
The trailer tipped on to its side, skidding into a hedge before coming to rest in a garden.
The pick-up, which became detached from the trailer, then went into a hedge on the opposite side of the road.
The Toyota Hilux vehicle rolled over in the crash, with Mr Ford falling through the open window on the driver's side and sustaining serious chest injuries.
He was taken by air ambulance to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, but died of his injuries.
Mr Ellery said there had been a number of factors behind the fatal crash.
He said there had been no driver error, with the loss of control likely to have been caused by the movement of the cows in the trailer and exacerbated by the combined weight of the trailer and cows being more than the pick-up truck, making it harder to control.
"In terms of what happened to Mr Ford, even with that, it should have been survivable if he had been wearing a seatbelt," he said.
"The seatbelt probably would have saved Mr Ford's life."
Mr Ford was a former president of Shropshire County Crown Green Bowling Association and leader of the Prees Church bell ringers.
