Coroner warns of future deaths risk after binman crushed in lorry

A coroner has issued a warning after a binman was crushed to death when his coat got caught and he was picked up and dropped into the back of his refuse collection lorry.

David Carpenter, a 60-year-old grandfather, died when the vehicle’s compaction cycle started despite him being inside. A jury concluded that the accident was “foreseeable”.

In a Prevention of Future Deaths report, Delroy Henry, the area coroner for Coventry and Warwickshire, said thousands of “sub-optimal” bin lorries were still in use.

Action to improve safety in the “hazardous” profession was happening at an “inordinately slow” pace, he added.

The inquest at Coventry Coroner’s Court was told that Mr Carpenter worked for the city’s council as a refuse collector in a Dennis Eagle lorry fitted with an automatic bin lift system.

The mechanism can lift two household waste bins at a time. Each lifting mechanism is controlled by its own control panel.

The court was told how, on Jan 19 last year, Mr Carpenter was lifted into the rear of the bin lorry when he “activated the proximity start sensor and his coat became caught on the lifting chair comb tooth associated with the bin security switch”. The automatic compaction cycle started, causing his fatal injuries.

New designs haven’t addressed ‘all that arose’

Mr Henry recorded his death as an accident, but has revealed “matters giving rise to concern”.

In a letter to lorry manufacturers, Dennis Eagle, the coroner said: “In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.

“There are thousands of bin lorries of this or similar design still in circulation in April 2024. It is estimated four to six million residential bins are lifted every day by bin lorries provided by the manufacturers.

“It is foreseeable that both workers and members of the public will approach the danger zone at the rear of the refuse collection vehicle, in the case of workers, for example, to remove debris/detritus which occurs frequently on residential waste collection rounds.

“A risk of inadvertent whole-body lifting into the manufacturer’s bin lorry hopper of a person in the danger zone carries with it a risk of death.”

Mr Henry said that although new machine designs from Dennis Eagle Ltd had dealt with some of the problems, they had not addressed “all that arose in the inquest”.

Machines with the new designs “are very few” compared to the “huge number of the manufacturer’s refuse collection vehicle in circulation”.

The coroner added that modification software should be available on all vehicles to ensure the automatic compaction cycle did not engage if someone fell into the vehicle.

Mr Henry added: “The cumulative effect being potentially important changes in the machinery in this hazardous working environment are inordinately slow.”

Directors of Dennis Eagle are under a legal obligation to respond to the coroner’s recommendations by June 17, the court was told.