Worker crushed to death at pasty factory

INQUEST JURY GIVES VERDICT OF 'ACCIDENTAL DEATH'

- NICK IRVING & JEFF REINES

A CRIMINAL investigation is ongoing after a man died as a result of being crushed by a reversing lorry in a loading bay at the Ginsters factory in Cornwall. Paul Clarke, 40, died of injuries he suffered during the fatal incident, which happened at The Cornwall Bakery in Callington, on December 2, 2021.

Paul was pinning back the plastic curtains when he was struck by the lorry which had reversed into the bay as it delivered vegetables – breaching a red light traffic light signal which meant it should not move until it was given a green light to do so. Health and Safety Executive specialist inspector Huw Hamer told the inquest into the death that the fatal incident was “foreseeable”.

Paul, of Launceston, was acting as a stand-in worker in the intake area and the inquest jury said he had received minimal training in operational procedures.

The jury returned an accidental death conclusion.