Construction worker crushed his brother to death at Heathrow Airport after getting his foot stuck under dumper truck brake
Philip Griffiths died at the scene from severe crush injuries to his chest
A MAN accidentally killed his brother after crushing him with a dump truck at Heathrow Airport, an inquest has heard.
West London Coroner's Court heard on Monday how builder Philip Griffiths was working on a car park with brother Robert near Terminal 2 on October 2 2014 when the accident happened.
Mr Griffiths, working as a pipe-layer for construction firm Laing O’Rourke, was standing by a broken-down cherry picker lift as his brother reversed towards him.
The pair were trying to shift the broken down aerial work platform, but as Robert's foot got stuck under the brake of the dump truck and he wasn't able to stop.
The truck collided with his 38-year-old brother Philip, crushing him against the cherry picker.
Philip Griffiths, who lived in Anglesey, Wales, died at the scene from severe crush injuries to his chest.
The brothers were both working for as pipe-layers from construction firm Laing O’Rourke in the early hours of the morning when the accident happened.
Construction worker Ieuan Evans told the court that previous attempts to fix the cherry picker had failed and that he thought an engineer had been called to fix it - as it was blocking access to the car park.
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He said, however, that after he left the site, the Griffiths brothers made one last attempt to try and move the machine.
He said: "They wouldn’t give up until the job was done. That’s the kind of boys they were."
Robert Griffiths told the inquest how he and his brother had tried to move the scissor lift twice and that it was their last attempt - and that he was "reversing slowly" when his foot got wedged under the brake.
PC Simon Palmer, of the Met ’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said the dump truck did not have any faults but that the height of the dump truck had restricted Robert Griffith's view.
He told the inquest that Philip appeared to have been 'crouching down' when he was hit, making it 'even harder' for his brother to see him - and that cops concluded the death was the result of a "tragic collision."
A jury, sitting before coroner Chinyere Inyama, recorded a verdict of accidental death.
The brothers' father Robert Griffiths said Philip was a "happy-go-lucky man who would do anything for anybody."
He said: "He was hard-working and always reliable, and he was a bit of a charmer. People have told me they’ve never met a nicer guy than Philip."
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