Bin collector died after he was lifted into lorry’s equipment

A man suffered fatal injuries when he got caught in a bin lorry's compaction equipment, a jury has heard.

David Carpenter, 60, died while collecting bins on Guild Road in Coventry on January 19 2023.

The inquest into his death reopened on Tuesday where his family described him as a "lovable, warm and humble" man.

After the jury was sworn in at Coventry's council buildings, coroner Delroy Henry described how Mr Carpenter was working as a team of three collecting bins around the streets of Coventry on the day he died.

He said that Mr Carpenter had been a refuse collector since he was 18, with more than 40 years of experience in that line of work.

On the morning he died, he was lifted by one of the rear lifting platforms into the automatic compaction equipment which caused his fatal injuries, the jury heard.

His stepdaughter Claire Chetwynd spoke on behalf of the family saying he was a "loving father and stepfather" and that his death has left a huge gap in their lives and hearts.

The court was shown CCTV from the morning Mr Carpenter died.

It's from a camera pointing down at the back of the bin lorry, with the two loading platforms that lift bins into the compactor in clear view.

It shows approximately one minute of Mr Carpenter and the other collector bringing bins to the lorry as normal, then he is shown loading a bin onto one of the platforms and reaching across to the other.

The footage then shows Mr Carpenter being lifted and thrown into the machinery in the back of the lorry, which only lasted a matter of seconds.

The coroner warned it might be upsetting footage to watch and proceedings were paused briefly afterwards for the family who were visibly shaken by what they were shown.

The bin lorry driver spoke in court and described the various safety checks he would undertake before each shift, saying nothing was out of the ordinary.

He described how the lifting systems at the back of the lorry operate and how sunlight was hitting the back camera, making the view he had on the screen in the cabin blurry which would show the rear of the lorry.

He recalled moving the lorry forward, then hearing shouting as the other bin collector hit the emergency button and ran to the cabin to say Mr Carpenter had been injured, but neither of them at that moment knew exactly what had happened to him.

In a statement about Mr Carpenter's death, the Health and Safety Executive said: “We are continuing to investigate this incident and will support the coroner throughout the inquest.

"We continue to work with industry to ensure that refuse collection vehicles meet the required level of safety.”

The family said at the end of their statement it’s important for them to understand the full circumstances of Mr Carpenter’s death and they want to stop it from happening again in the future.

The inquest continues.

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