A MAN who was crushed between two lorries had forgotten to put the handbrake on his vehicle, allowing it to roll, an inquest was told.

John Williamson, 67, from Terrington St Clement, was coupling his lorry to a trailer when it rolled into the back of a parked lorry.

Witnesses told an inquest in Norwich that Mr Williamson was found lying on the ground between the two lorries.

Paramedics were called but Mr Williamson was pronounced dead at Lynn Star Distribution and Logistics on the Hardwick industrial estate in King’s Lynn.

The inquest was told that Mr Williamson was a part-time driver for the agency DH Fenland, based in Wisbech, who had been working for Lynn Star for about four months.

He was a well-experienced HGV driver who had passed his licence in 1973, the inquest heard, but on this occasion he failed to put the handbrake on, which had allowed the lorry to roll on the gently sloping yard.

As it slowly started to roll, Mr Williamson probably moved to the front of his lorry to climb into the cab to put the handbrake on, but was instead crushed, the inquest heard.

A jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and Norfolk coroner William Armstrong said: “It is a mystery why Mr Williamson did not engage the handbrake.

“But if this desperate tragedy serves as a warning to others then it will have served a useful purpose.

“We have heard that Mr Williamson was a joker, a lovely man, and was known affectionately by his colleagues as ‘old boy’, which shows the regard they held him in.”

Mr Williamson died on July 21, 2010. The cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries.