The death of a delivery driver at a Workington firm was accidental, a jury has ruled.

A four-day inquest has been held into the death of 48-year-old lorry driver Richard Brown.

Yesterday, the jury concluded Mr Brown's death at Howdens Joinery, at Clay Flatts on November 10, 2014 was accidental.

They said: "Mr Brown was struck by a falling load from a fork lift truck.

"The maximum capacity for a load on the fork lift truck was exceeded and a two metre exclusion zone was not adhered to."

Evidence has been given over the four-day hearing about the fatal accident.

The jury has heard that Mr Brown, of Hull, died after getting trapped between a forklift truck and his own vehicle during a delivery at the Workington depot.

Alan Howlett, a forklift truck driver, said his truck lifted two pallets of worktops and the lift truck tipped forward.

He said Mr Brown who was initially about two metres away, moved between the pallets on the lift truck and his vehicle.

Subsequently Mr Brown became trapped and died at the scene of a blunt head trauma.

An inquest into Mr Brown's death heard from health and safety inspector Andrew Crouch.

He concluded: “There was no reason to believe there was a fault with the truck that was liable to have contributed to the incident.”

He said the worktops weighed 2,160kg but the maximum permissible load was 1,520kg.

“Therefore, the lift truck was overloaded by around 42 per cent. This was the primary cause of the incident,” he added.

He said it would have been “reasonably practicable to have unloaded two pallets of worktops separately to avoid overloading the lift truck”.

Mr Crouch also said the lifting operation of the pallets was “poorly planned and unsafely executed”.

And he said: “As a visiting driver, Mr Brown should have been safely segregated from the forklift truck operating areas.”

Evidence was also given by David Attenborough, head of health and safety (trade) at Howdens.

He said immediately after the incident, the firm reinforced health and safety policies and introduced new measures to lorry and forklift truck drivers. The manager now ensures the unloading process is carried out safely, there are new safety signs on the back of forklift trucks and an overload and alarm system has also been introduced.