A Welsh farmer who was a "significant member" of the rural community died when a bull crushed him against a brick wall, an inquest heard. Maldwyn Harries, 58, was killed at his farm at Cefn Rhiwlas near Llandeilo on September 23 as he worked alongside his wife and son.
Mr Harries, his son Mark, wife Gillian, and a farm vet were testing the farm animals for TB on the Friday morning. Mrs Harries told Paul Bennett, the acting senior coroner for Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, that her husband had tried to push the bull backwards out of a stall and into a crush in order for it to be tagged by the vet. The bull was used to going through the yard and milking parlour twice a day and had already been through the crush that day, she said.
Simon Breen, from the Health and Safety Executive, was also at the inquest held at Llanelli Town Hall on Friday. He explained how Mr Harries had been in the stall next to the bull and had tapped it on the nose to encourage it to reverse out.
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Mr Breen said the bull would "normally respond by backing out". But on this occasion it didn't and Mr Harries ducked under the rails between the two stalls and tried again. Mr Breen said: "Somehow the bull decided to go forward rather than back."
Mr Harries was crushed between the animal and the wall and suffered "multiple traumatic injuries" to his chest, abdomen, and spine. The bull was quickly removed from the area by Mark Harries and was later destroyed as it had tested positive for TB. Despite the best efforts of medical workers, including the air ambulance, who treated him with six pints of blood Mr Harries died at the scene. A post-mortem examination carried out by Dr Petya Nedeva gave the medical cause of death as "multiple chest, abdominal, and spinal traumatic injuries" caused by "accidental crushing by a bull".
In a report read out by coroner's officer Hayley Rogers it was heard that Mr Harries was a self-employed farmer at the Carmarthenshire family farm. After listening to the "tragic account" of events Mr Bennett said: "This is sadly one of those unusual and infrequent occasions where someone has died in the context of doing their very valuable work as part of the farming community in this country and in the course of that has put themselves into a situation sadly of risk that led, as we know, to Mr Harries sustaining significant traumatic crush injuries from which he subsequently died."
He added that he couldn't imagine how Mr Harries' death had affected Mrs Harries "both as his wife and family but also as a significant member of the farming community". Mr Bennett said Mr Harries' death was clearly an accident as a "non-intended consequence" of going about "the day-to-day part of the farming routine". He recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
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