7:44am Thursday 28th February 2008
By Marc Meneaud
A teenager was crushed to death when an articulated lorry with no reversing warning system drove over him, an inquest heard.
Kristopher Dixon, 18, of Wibsey, suffered massive internal injuries and multiple broken bones when he went under the wheels of the 16-tonne wagon.
The six foot four, 18-stone waste management worker, known as "Biddy" to his friends, had his back to the lorry and never heard it coming, an inquest jury was told yesterday.
The tragedy happened on April 12 last year at the Associated Waste Management (AWM) tip in Canal Road, Bradford. His grieving dad, Ken Dixon, 57, said: "He was a big lad but he had no chance."
Truck driver Ivan Lee, who worked for AWM, had been visiting the busy yard to drop off a large container and, spotting a space to manoeuvre into, had reversed his wagon into it.
Holding back tears, Mr Lee told the inquest he never realised he had run over Mr Dixon, saying he was "absolutely gutted and baffled" as to how the tragedy could have happened while he was reversing "slower than walking speed."
After initially running down the teenager, he drove back over his body, unaware that he was beneath his wagon's wheels.
Following a joint investigation with West Yorkshire Police, health and safety inspector Norman Robins, told the Bradford inquest the lorry had: * No reversing alarm * No rear external CCTV and * A broken rear reverse light He also revealed that, at the time of the fatality, the yard did not have a designated safe area for those working on foot.
Mr Lee had also not used a banksman - a guide to help vehicles reverse - while attempting to drop off the container, the inquest was told.
Giving evidence, collision investigator PC Russell Windross said: "I consider that, had the vehicle been fitted with a reversing alarm, the pedestrian would have been made aware of the reversing vehicle."
Following the accident, AWM employed a health and safety consultant and has introduced warning alarms and CCTV on all wagons, the inquest heard.
James Willoughby, a solicitor for the Dixon family, revealed that the site had been the scene of another fatality when a company director had been struck by a wagon while speaking on his mobile phone.
AWM did not operate from the yard at the time and, since then, mobile phones have been banned.
After the hearing Kris's dad, Ken Dixon, 57, a skip driver of Moffat Close, Wibsey, said: "It is good what they have done since.
"But if only the wagon had had a warning alarm, maybe he would have got out of the way. But as it was, he had no chance."
He said Kris's mum, Julie Dixon died eight weeks to the day after her son died in the accident at the privately-owned waste management site .
The 50-year-old mum-of-four died at Bradford Royal Infirmary. She had suddenly suffered a recurrence of breast cancer.
Mr Dixon said his wife had thought she had beaten the cancer a couple of years ago, but tests at the hospital revealed she still had it.
He said: "She had been all right. She had been through chemotherapy but her hair had grown back but after Kris died she just went downhill. She wanted to be with Kris. It just devastated her but she got her wish in the end."
The jury returned a verdict of misadventure and Bradford's deputy coroner Mark Hinchliffe gave his condolences to the family.
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