A FARMER died at work when a tractor with a faulty handbrake ran over him, an inquest heard.

Brian Megginson, 67, died in September while working in a field at his farm in Thixendale in the Yorkshire Wolds.

Alec Danby, of Malton, who had worked for Mr Megginson for seven years, told an inquest jury at Northallerton that on the day of the accident, they had both been working outside in different fields.

"It was about 5pm and I stopped for a break and Brian's sister and his daughter just appeared across the field running and shouting," he said.

Mr Megginson's grandson, Adam Palmer, called the emergency services, and Mr Danby went to find Mr Megginson.

He found Mr Megginson's tractor and baler jack-knifed, with the tractor facing uphill and the baler at right angles to it, and Mr Megginson lying between the front and rear wheels of the tractor.

"My first reaction was that it had gone backwards over the top of him. He must have been working underneath the baler and it (the tractor) had gone over him and gone backwards."

Mr Palmer said in a statement that he had often seen his grandfather deal with blockages in the baler by stopping the tractor, putting on the handbrake and pulling out the straw by hand.

A post-mortem report found that Mr Megginson had died from multiple injuries, primarily to the head and chest. Rob Hirst, an inspector with the Health and Safety Executive, found that the handbrake on the tractor was not working effectively when he arrived at the scene.

Further investigation found that there was unusual damage to one of the brake discs, caused by overheating, which had in turn been caused by overuse, but this would not have been known to anyone.

"It would appear Mr Megginson was driving in an uphill direction. After a few minutes the baler was subject to a blockage. He reversed a short distance, alighted from the tractor with the engine running and the hand brake applied. The stubble would give a degree of resistance to the tractor wheels."

But he added: "The force of pulling the blockage may have been sufficient to instigate the movement of the tractor."

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

lThe tragedy of Mr Megginson's death came within two months of a near-fatal accident at Thixendale involving his nephew, Charles Brader.

Updated: 11:44 Saturday, February 17, 2001