Farm horror as man crushed to death under forklift truck

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 10:52

THE owners of a farm in East Lothian where a man was crushed to death under a forklift truck have spoken of their shock.

The man, named locally as George Thompson, had been paving the steading at Greendykes Farm in Tranent yesterday morning when he was struck by a reversing forklift truck.

The 57-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. Lothian and Borders Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

Robert Steven and his wife Sheena have owned the farm for the last 20 years and today paid tribute to Mr Thompson, who they have known for over 15 years and who they described as an "exceptional man".

Mr Thompson, a landscape gardener, carried out several landscaping jobs at the farm for the couple over the years.

Mrs Steven said: "We are so desperately sorry and are going to miss him so much.

"George was a perfectionist, a very well informed person and he was very trustworthy. He was somebody you would like to have as a friend. Whatever he did, he was a complete perfectionist."

She added: "The work he has done on the farm is a testimony to his terrific workmanship. He was a very clever man and he could turn his hand to anything."

A Health and Safety Executive investigation into the incident, which took place just before 11am, has been launched.

It is the second incident of its kind in the Lothians this year and the third in the last two years. In June a worker was crushed to death beneath a forklift truck at a meat factory in Broxburn.

Long-serving Halls of Broxburn worker George Hardie, 58, was working in the yard at the East Main Street plant when he was hit by the forklift.

A Health and Safety Inquiry was also launched in October 2007 after a worker was crushed by a huge concrete block that slipped from a forklift on a builders' yard in Leith. The accident took place at the Salamander Street yard of roofing contractors A Thorburn.

Mr Thompson lived in Macmerry and previously owned the Village Shoppe. Mrs Steven added that he had his own landscaping business.

An ambulance from Haddington attended the farm yesterday morning. A spokeswoman for the Ambulance Service said Mr Thompsonwas pronounced dead at the scene.

A police spokesman said: "Officers from Lothian and Borders Police are investigating the death of a 57-year-old Macmerry man who was struck as he worked at the rear of a reversing forklift truck at Greendykes Farm, Macmerry.

"Despite the efforts of paramedics who attended, he succumbed to his injuries at the scene."