A PARTIALLY deaf roadworker may not have been able to hear a reversing asphalt lorry before it ran over him during resurfacing work on a main South Yorkshire road, an inquest jury was told.
Gordon Duffield, aged 51, who suffered fatal crush injuries under the back wheels of the 32-tonne tipper truck on Fitzwilliam Road, Rotherham, was known to suffer from industrial deafness but was still working as a tar layer.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death on Mr Duffield, of Salisbury Road, Maltby.
A Health and Safety Executive spokesman said it was too early to say if his employers, Rotherham Council, or the tipper lorry owners will be prosecuted for possible safety breaches.
Mr Duffield was walking backwards and would have been bent over to pour a strip of tar where a fresh batch of asphalt was to be laid when he was hit by the reversing lorry, said to be travelling at about 2mph.
Colleagues told the inquest they knew he had received compensation for industrial deafness and a noise expert from the HSE calculated he would not have been able to hear the audible beeper from the lorry, although someone with normal hearing would have heard.
Lorry driver John Walker said he was using all his mirrors as he backed up towards the asphalt laying machine but never saw Mr Duffield.
Mr Duffield died later the same day from multiple injuries.
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The full article contains 296 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
