Undertaker may have reached under lift - inquest

An undertaker found crushed to death under a lift that moved coffins in a funeral parlour may have gone to reach for something underneath it, an inquest heard.

Sally Blundell, 58, had been working alone at the East of England Co-op Funeral Services branch in Swaffham, Norfolk, on 1 December 2023.

The hydraulic scissor lift mortuary trolley was brought into Norfolk Coroner's Court in Norwich and shown to jurors on Tuesday.

Norfolk area coroner Yvonne Blake said Mrs Blundell had been "kneeling so her legs were underneath her", with her upper body inside the frame.

Blake told jurors "we don't know which height the trolley was at on the day in question".

Mrs Blundell was found by a colleague from the Dereham branch after concerns were raised by a family who had an appointment, but he found no staff.

The inquest had heard the device moved bodies from fridges in a back room.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) specialist inspector Jonathan Wright demonstrated to jurors how the device worked, with a hand pump used to pump hydraulic fluid to raise a table on a scissor lift.

Engineer Dr Eleanor Jay compiled an expert report and said, in her view, a spring - which closes a valve to stop the table lowering - had become "plastically deformed".

She said it "didn't always return to its closed position every time", meaning the table could continue to lower.

In her report, Jay said: "If Mrs Blundell let go of the handle (on the device) to reach something under the table, contrary to warning stickers and training, it's possible that the table continued to fall at an indeterminate speed and she became trapped underneath it."

She said the metal of the spring had "relaxed over time".

Earlier in the inquest, the coroner told jurors "three experts have agreed she [Mrs Blundell] must have inserted herself" in the frame of the device.

"What we don't know is why," said Blake.

"It was noted her glasses were found on the floor but they weren't necessarily under the trolley.

"All the explanations seem fairly weird.

"It's not the sort of thing you would normally crawl under.

"You would move the trolley."

Stephen Kemp, the colleague who found Mrs Blundell, said she had been wearing headphones.

The inquest continues.

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