A RETIRED plumber died as a result of a tragic accident when working on farm machinery at a smallholding.

An inquest at Bradford Coroner’s Court heard that father of two, Charlie Lovell, 60, of King Edward Terrace, Thornton, spent most of his days working on his smallholding at Upper Back Lane Farm, Thornton.

His widow, Jean, who described her husband as ‘sociable and cheeky’ said in a statement he had left the family home on the morning of Sunday, February 18, to go to the smallholding.

She said when he had not returned home for tea she drove up to the smallholding with friends, Maureen Moorhouse and Clifford Illingworth.

Mr Illingworth said in his statement that it was dark in the building and he needed a torch. He found Mr Lovell who was cold and immediately rang the emergency services. Both the fire service and paramedics attended.

Mr Lovell was found trapped between the front of his Bell skid steer loader and the hydraulic operated lift arms.

Andrew Crouch, a health and safety inspector specialising in mechanical engineering, said on examining the machine he found the safety bar was pulled down in the cab making it possible for there to be hydraulic power to the loader’s arms.

He said the engine was not running at the time Mr Lovell was found, at around 8.45pm, but the key was in an ‘on’ position.

The bale spike attachment was pointing down to the ground leaving up to 500mm of space for Mr Lovell to work under.

“He intended to be under there but it is not clear why. He had no tools with him but there were signs there had been an electrical issue at some time and the fuse was missing,” Mr Crouch said.

He added that the loader had tipped back causing the front wheels to come off the ground and dragging the bale spike backwards by around 200mm, trapping Mr Lovell.

The inquest was told Mr Lovell was very good at working with machinery and regularly fixed and serviced equipment.

He tended to work on his own but had fellow farming friends to call on if he needed a hand with something.

A post-mortem examination found the cause of death as asphyxiation caused by being trapped,

Paramedics attending the incident said Mr Lovell was pale and cold and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, assistant coroner Oliver Longstaff said he accepted the engine would have been running when Mr Lovell was ‘doing what he was doing’.

“The evidence as it is available to me is that there has been an inadvertent operation of the hydraulics that Mr Lovell did not intend, making what happened almost inevitable. It was a tragic incident.”