A machine that crushed a man to death at a Bradford timber yard had malfunctioned before, an inquest heard yesterday.

John Crossley, 52, died on February 15 last year at Ramsey Timber Ltd in Wellington Street, Laisterdyke, Bradford, when the stacking machine he was operating collapsed on top of him.

Yesterday, the jury at Bradford Coroners Court, heard from Mr Crossley's colleagues that the machine had malfunctioned before.

Machinist Kevin Guy told the hearing: "The machine has malfunctioned before when the bar has gone up.

"But I have never known the bar to go down as it did on the day John died.

"I have absolutely no idea what happened on that day."

Mr Guy, of Bradford, said he was alerted to the accident when he heard his colleagues shouting "John's trapped, John's trapped".

He said everyone was panicking as they tried to work out how to free Mr Crossley from the machine.

Another witness, Paul Heaton, of Low Moor, Bradford, said Mr Crossley was crouching down "like a wicket keeper" with the machine resting on his back.

"When I turned round John was directly in front of me," he said.

Mr Guy said: "I tried to turn the machine off at the emergency switch but it did not work.

"I shouted for someone to go and get the fork lift truck because it was the only way I could think of lifting the machine off him."

Mr Guy broke down when he described Mr Crossley's condition when they finally lifted the machine off him.

"His hand was dithery but it was difficult to say whether he was still alive or not then," he said.

Attempts were made to revive Mr Crossley by his colleagues and paramedics but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A post-mortem into his death found that he had been asphyxiated by the machine when his lungs were starved of oxygen.

Doctor Vianne Dabbagh said there was no way that Mr Crossley could have survived the accident.

Mr Crossley, who had worked at the timber yard for seven years, had been more than halfway through his 12-hour shift when the accident happened at approximately 3.50pm.

The jury heard that Kevin Pheasby of Eccleshill, who was operating the machine with Mr Crossley on the day of the accident, had only started work at the company the day before and had no experience of operating an automated machine.

"John had shown me the basics of the machine," he said.

"He was very thorough but I was just shown the basics."

The inquest continues today.

e-mail: jennifer.sugden@bradford.newsquest.co.uk