A jury took less than 15 minutes to reach a verdict of accidental death in the case of an excavator driver who died days after his machine toppled over.

Richard Luck was described by his ex-wife Suzanne Rees as “a proud and clever man, who hated any fuss”.

An inquest was held into his death at Oakwood House in Maidstone on Tuesday (April 1).

It heard Mr Luck had been a machine operator for 40 years and was competent in all types of vehicle.

On Monday, September 2, last year, he had been working at Paddlesworth Farm in Snodland, run by the Lingham brothers, Simon and Martin.

He was not contracted full-time, but had worked for them at the 600-acre farm many times over the years.

Simon Lingham had asked Mr Luck to drive the excavator and load horse manure, used as fertilizer, into a trailer which Mr Lingham then drove away behind a tractor for distribution.

The pair had done the same thing successfully for several hours the previous Friday but that Monday the excavator, which Mr Luck was maneuvering on top of a large pile of manure, had toppled over.

Mr Lingham did not witness the incident, but returned from a trailer run to find Mr Luck injured.

Emergency services were called and the inquest heard that ambulance crews had found Mr Luck bleeding from a severe wound to his right arm, and with multiple broken ribs. He was conscious and able to sit up, but had severe difficulty breathing.

He was flown by air ambulance to Kings College Hospital in London.

The coroner, Catherine Wood, read evidence from Mr Luck’s medical history that he had already been suffering from emphysema, a lung condition, and he quickly became short of breath after any exertion.

It was said that he could barely walk five metres on the flat without becoming out of breath. He also suffered from curvature of the spine.

At hospital, Mr Luck was operated on for fractures to his right arm, but he had continued to have difficulty breathing as a result of his underlying condition, worsened by the injuries to his ribs, and he had to be put on a ventilation machine.

Towards the end he became delirious, but he had earlier expressed a desire not to continue living in a state of severe disability.

In a statement read to the court, Ms Rees said that although they were divorced, she and Mr Luck had remained best friends and she said: “I still loved him very much.”

But after doctors told her it was unlikely that Mr Luck would ever be able to live again without the mechanical ventilation, she consented to advice that his ventilator be turned off in line with his expressed wishes.

Mr Luck died shortly after on September 9.

Simon Lingham was not in court, but was represented by James Leonard, counsel.

All the parties involved are good men

Mr Leonard read a statement from the farm boss in which he said: “Richard and I were friends. I had assisted him in getting to hospital appointments and stored some of his belongings for him when he moved home.”

“Richard had not worked for us for about five years - he had been working as a landfill operator - but about a week before the incident he phoned me and said he was feeling bored and lonely and asked if there were any jobs on the farm for him.”

In her statement, Ms Rees said Mr Lingham may not have appreciated the severity of Mr Luck’s illness, as he had deteriorated a great deal in the last six months.

She said: ”Richard and Simon were very good friends. Simon was like family to Richard.

“All the parties involved are good men. The Lingham family needs to be remembered for all the good they do for the community and for their charity work, not for this accident.”

Detective Sergeant Sophie West, from Kent Police, had investigated and concluded that no third parties were involved and there were no grounds for a criminal prosecution.

At this point, she handed over the investigation of the incident to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The workplace safety regulator had engaged a professional excavator driver, Thomas Janes, to test the machine that Mr Luck had been using, once it had been recovered.

Mr Janes put the machine through an extensive series of tests, but could find no fault with it.

A post-mortem concluded that Mr Luck’s death had been caused by respiratory failure caused by polytrauma injuries and worsened by his underlying chronic pulmonary disease.

The coroner directed the jury of five men and six women that, given the evidence, the only possible conclusion they could reach in law was one of accidental death.

Two officers from the HSE attended the inquest, but gave no evidence.

Outside of court, they confirmed they would not be taking any action against the farm owners.