Electric Light Orchestra were one of my favourite bands in the 1970s and I was so sad when I heard that Mike Edwards, who played cello with them, had been killed in an accident.
The accident happened when a 600kg bale of hay fell from a tractor on a nearby farm before rolling onto the in Halwell, Devon. Mike was driving along the road when the bale fell off. He swerved into another vehicle as his van was struck by the bale.
An inquest jury in Plymouth has now returned a verdict of accidental death. However, there have been some questions from independent health and safety experts over how the bale was secured to the tractor while it was transported.
Mike’s brother said after the inquest that he would like to ask the coroner to consider making a recommendation to the Heath and Safety Executive to revise its guidelines to include the hazards of a baling operation on sloping ground.
I hope that the HSE take this into consideration so that no more unnecessary and preventable tragedies such as this happen in the future.
