A 30-year-old father of two was fatally injured when a ramp on a lorry collapsed on him as he investigated a leak in the truck's hydraulic system, an inquest heard yesterday.
Damian Crowley had gone under the ramp at the back of the rigid lorry to examine a leak in a piece of hydraulic hosing used to lift the ramp when the ramp came crashing down on top of him and trapped him.
Witness Edmond Fitzgibbon told how he was working for Mr Crowley and had loaded a cherry-picker from a container at Cork docks on to the back of the lorry using the ramp at the back when the accident happened at around 1pm on January 7th last.
He had used the hydraulic system to raise the ramp after loading the cherry-picker on to the ramp when Mr Crowley noticed an oil leak in one of the two hydraulic hoses that formed part of the lifting mechanism.
Mr Crowley was between Mr Fitzgibbon and fitter Michael Cullinane when he crouched down to check on the pipe. "Whatever way Damian touched the tube, the oil flew out at pressure and the ramp suddenly came crashing down, trapping Damian," said Mr Fitzgibbon.
Mr Fitzgibbon said he had problems with the other hydraulic pipe the previous night but they had taken the lorry to Little Island to have the tube replaced earlier that morning and they had checked the second pipe then and found nothing wrong with it.
"We had tested the ramp that morning - I did a delivery of a forklift earlier that morning and it went okay, and down the docks, the ramp went down without any difficulty and it came back up without any difficulty," said Mr Fitzgibbon.
He said there were straps to secure the ramp in place when it was raised but they hadn't been put on yet. A valve system which should have prevented the oil from leaking and kept the ramp up was absent, the inquest heard.
Mr Crowley was taken by ambulance to the South Infirmary but was pronounced dead 50 minutes later. He died from traumatic asphyxia.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death and Cork city coroner Dr Myra Cullinane extended her sympathies to the family of Mr Crowley, who lived at Togher in Cork city.