Devon farmer crushed to death by tractor, inquest hears

A Devon farmer was crushed to death by his tractor after operating an unsafe homemade lever, an inquest has heard.

Philip Taylor, 67, was a retired British Airways aerospace engineer who had become a part-time farmer when he and his wife moved to farmland at Ashwater, Beaworthy, in 1994.

An inquest at County Hall in Exeter heard that in May 2021 he bought a second-hand John Deere tractor, which was about 30 years old, and a topper to help with farm work.

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The father-of-two had been sharpening the cutting blades on the topper in a barn when his wife Elizabeth found him dead on 25 June last year.

The tractor’s engine was still running, and emergency services were called to the farm. The cause of death was listed as asphyxia.

Mrs Taylor said the John Deere tractor was not in a good condition. “I personally thought it was a pile of rubbish,” she told the inquest.

Forensic vehicle examiner Geoffrey Chapman said the tractor had been fitted with an additional hydraulic lever which could be operated from the rear of the vehicle, rather than using the lever fitted inside the cab.

Mr Chapman said: “It should not have been fitted. I have never seen a lever fitted there before. This modification was fitted by someone at some time in the past life of the tractor.”

Lever was ‘unsafe’

Health and Safety Executive inspector Simon Jones said the lever was “unsafe” and put the user in danger.

He believed it was likely Mr Taylor had been lowering the blades of the topper when the accident happened – and may have moved the lever in the wrong direction.

Mr Jones added that he had spoken to the previous owner of the tractor, who had had it for 10 years, and he said he had no knowledge of the additional lever and did not fit it.

A spokesman for Mr Taylor’s family said they felt very much that the tractor was “substandard and was not safe when it was sold”.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.