The father of a young man who died on the family farm said he will never know why his son, William Rudge, decided to fetch timber for firewood on the day he died.

William, known as Billy, died on February 9th, 2015 when the Merlo telehandler he was driving overturned causing a fracture to his upper cervical spine. The inquest into his death took place at Hereford Town Hall on Monday, May 22nd, 2017.

The jury reached the conclusion that Billy’s death was an accident and the Coroner, Mark Bricknell said it was tragic, as he was just 20 years old. He told the court that the death served to highlight the dangers of farming.

Billy was described by his father, Chris Rudge as, ‘our farming son’. He was one of six children who lived at home with his parents, Chris and Jen and the one who most enjoyed helping on the farm at Baysham, Sellack, near Ross-on-Wye.

Mr Rudge told the Coroner, Mark Bricknell that Billy had helped on the family farm all his life and, from the age of about 16 until he was 20, when he died, would carry out all sorts of jobs. Mr Rudge said that Billy was very used to driving and had used the telehandler many times for jobs on the farm, such as feeding and mucking out. Mr Rudge added: “He was very capable of using most machines.”

He told the court that he had been with Billy on the morning of his death; they had been kidding a goat and then Billy said he would check on the cattle. He said that they had not talked about moving the tree, and Mr Rudge said: “I did not instruct him to do it, but Billy enjoyed getting firewood.”

Zak Webb, who was with Billy on the day he died, described how Billy had decided to fetch a tree which had been felled. Zak said they were going to bring it back to the farmyard and split it up for firewood.

Zak told the court that he drove the tractor and Billy travelled on his quad bike. Zak said that he parked at the top of the slope while Billy went to check on some cattle, when he returned Zak drove down the bank, about a quarter of the way and waited. He told the court he drove straight down the bank and left the tractor facing forwards. Billy got in and drove down to the log and connected it to the arm of the tractor.

The tractor was pulled to one side by the weight of the log. Billy tried to climb out of the vehicle which had over turned, but as he was half way out the tractor rolled over again. The coroner said it must have done a complete somersault to have ended up facing the way it did. Zak agreed.

The jury at the inquest concluded that the death was accidental. The Coroner expressed his condolences to the family and said that on the very day Mr Rudge lost his son he had spoken to Zak’s family to sympathise with them about the experience their son had been through.

After the inquest Mr Rudge told the Ross Gazette that it had been a very sad day and he had not realised how important a part of their family Billy was and they would never get used to him not being there. They will continue to work with young people wishing to gain experience of farming in New Zealand to honour Billy’s memory.