Inquest into death of driver killed while delivering a pallet to a home address gets underway

The inquest into the death of HGV driver Petru Pop, began this week at Buckinghamshire's coroner's court.

The inquest, which will be heard by a jury, is tabled to run until 13 November.

Pop died in November 2016 whilst making a delivery to a residential address in High Wycombe on behalf of Reason Transport. He was crushed to death beneath a 1.1-tonne pallet of tiles which he was attempting to unload from the truck.

The decision to call a jury was made by the senior coroner, following a second pre-inquest review of the case in December 2017.

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Inquests involving juries are rare but can be called if the deceased death is caused by an accident at work, or if the continuance of the circumstances in which the deceased died is prejudicial to the health and safety of the public.

HSE recently concluded an investigation into pallet weights for tail lift vehicles. It recommended no limit on pallet weights and a requirement that drivers make a risk assessment of the safety of each tail-lift delivery, at point of delivery.