Repairer killed when tyre blast threw him at van

A mobile tyre repair technician died when a tyre he had worked on exploded, flinging him backwards into his van, an inquest has heard.

Mark Digweed, 39, had been called to a landfill site near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on 22 April 2020, to fix a punctured tyre on a water bowser.

He died from a traumatic brain stem injury and chest injuries.

His employer TyreFix UK told a jury at Peterborough that Mr Digweed was trained but the documents were missing.

At the beginning of the two-day hearing, coroner Simon Milburn said it would hear evidence of any training and safety precautions in place.

Asked if he could explain why the training record was missing, Oliver Johnson, managing director of TyreFix UK, replied: "Honestly, no."

An internal audit established that only Mr Digweed's training record, which should have been in a secure filing cabinet, was missing.

He said Mr Digweed would have had three months of on-the-job training after joining in 2017, but he could not confirm whether he and his trainer had signed any documentation.

Mr Digweed was a "confident and competent" worker with a "can-do attitude" and had repaired more than 4,000 punctures, Mr Johnson added.

The inquest heard the van was parked 1.7m (5ft 5in) away and directly in front of the affected tyre, despite the requirement on any job of a 3m (9ft 8in) exclusion zone.

Mr Johnson said he had "absolutely no idea" why Mr Digweed had parked where he did.

He also "could not explain" why Mr Digweed's van did not carry a "very important" pressure regulator, which prevents over-inflation of a tyre.

Mr Johnson added: "We have changed a considerable amount of our documentation."

The inquest heard Mr Digweed had been the last person on site at Brampton Road, Buckden when he died, shortly after finishing the repair at 18:00 BST.

A video camera in the van picked up some of what happened, including Mr Digweed appearing to inspect the re-inflated tyre, the jury was told.

This was followed by a plume of smoke and the van appearing to rock.

A concerned friend found Mr Digweed following several unanswered phone calls and he was confirmed dead by a paramedic at 22:45 BST.

The jury heard his injuries were consistent with being very close to a high-pressure tyre blast before being thrown into the side of the van.

The inquest continues.

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