A HGV driver died after getting trapped between a fork lift truck, with heavy pallets on, and his vehicle, an inquest heard.

The fatal incident involving Richard Andrew Brown, of Bristol Road, Hull, happened at Howdens Joinery at Clay Flatts, in Workington on November 10, 2014.

A five-day inquest, with a jury, has begun at Cleator Moor Civic Hall.

They were told the cause of Mr Brown's death was "a blunt head trauma".

The inquest heard from numerous staff at Howdens, including fork lift truck driver Alan Howlett.

He said Mr Brown arrived at the depot with a delivery, which included two pallets of three-metre long worktops.

Mr Howlett said he assessed the load and carried out a test lift. At the time, Mr Brown was a "reasonable distance" away, [about two metres].

"Once I got the load an inch or so off the trailer bed, I reversed it all back. I put it into neutral. It was when I started to lower the load down that it started to tip forward. I started to shout out a warning. I could just see a flash of his [Mr Brown's] high visibly jacket and he disappeared behind the load."

On seeing Mr Brown trapped, Mr Howlett then rushed to Chris Greenhow, manager, and Liam Stevens, assistant manager, for help.

Emergency services including the police, fire, ambulance and air ambulance attended. Mr Brown was pronounced dead at the scene.

PC Shaun McKeown, from Cumbria police, said following investigations, he concluded there was no faults or failures with the HGV or fork lift truck that contributed to Mr Brown's death.

Evidence was given by Steven Boyd, from the Health and Safety Executive, who said the rating capacity of the fork lift truck was 1,520 kg. But the load in this fatal incident was 2,160kg.

Questions were raised at the inquest about the firm's health and safety policies, including how fork lift drivers check to see what weights of items they are lifting.

Mr Howlett, Mr Greenhow, and Mr Stevens said training is given for fork lift drivers to assess the weight themselves.

Mr Howlett said he used his "judgement and experience" to determine the load's weight.

Since Mr Brown's death, more safety measures have been introduced, including weight alarm fitted to indicate if fork lift trucks are close to capacity, new unloading system, and people must now be three metres from unloading rather than two.

The inquest continues.