A FARM worker feeding sheep from a trailer died when it toppled into a 20ft gravel pit and crushed him, an inquest heard yesterday. Ieuan Hughes, 50, was standing on a trailer being pulled by a tractor which slipped into the pit after a grassy overhang collapsed. The tractor driver couldn't see the lip of the pit, partly because the vehicles were surrounded by sheep, the Caernarfon hearing was told. Both men and their two vehicles fell in. Mr Hughes, of Cae Llwybr, Caernarfon, died after suffering a fractured skull and major brain damage. A jury of five men and three women returned a verdict of accidental death. The tragedy happened at Carnguwch in Llithfaen, near Pwllheli in March, 2003. The case was reported to the authorities, leading to the delay before yesterday's full inquest, But the Health and Safety Executive decided not to bring charges in connection with the case. Tractor driver Carwyn Thomas Ellis said Mr Hughes was throwing feed pellets to the sheep when the accident happened. Mr Ellis said: "I was trying to go forward so Ieuan could throw the feed out of the trailer. Because of all the sheep, I couldn't see where I was going. I think it (the grassy edge) collapsed. The next thing I knew was that the trailer had gone over the edge." Mr Ellis also fell into the pit in his tractor but escaped with minor injuries. Coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said: "The tractor driver went too close to the edge of the pit, the edge crumbled and the wheel went over it. The tractor went to the bottom of the pit pulling the trailer behind it. It turned over and the coupling fractured due to the twisting of the tractor and trailer. "Unfortunately Mr Hughes got crushed between the edge of the trailer and the ground." The coroner said the edge of the pit was "very unstable". He added: "It must have been obvious that this was a danger to people working on that farm and in my view they would have been aware there was a soft edge." But he said there was no legal need to fence off the gravel pit if gravel taken out is for the landowner's use - as in this case.. Mr Hughes's family declined to comment on the verdict. FARM TRAGEDIES * Mark Jones, 41, of Knighton, Powys, died after falling 30ft from a mobile platform at a farm in Stourbridge, West Midlands last February 2004. * Thomas Frank Baybutt, eight, was killed by a forklift truck driven by a relative on Wood Farm, Sealand, in Flintshire in August 2003. * William Gittins, two, died after being struck by a tractor at his family's farm near Meifod, Powys, in January 2002. * John Beale Williams, 50, was killed when a hydraulic arm fell on him at Stryd yr Hwch Farm, Sontley, near Wrexham, in August 2000. * Rachel Louise Kearsley, four, died when she fell from a tractor bucketin May 1999 at Tyddyn Ucha Farm, Rhosymadoc, Ruabon. | 
