Lorry driver died after accident
A SUFFOLK lorry driver died three days after being trapped in his cab for nearly seven hours following an accident at King's Lynn, an inquest has heard.
A SUFFOLK lorry driver died three days after being trapped in his cab for nearly seven hours following an accident at King's Lynn, an inquest has heard.
Lynn coroner William Knowles recorded a verdict of accidental death on Graham Rowe, 58, from Woodbridge.
A rescue operation was launched after Mr Rowe's Daf lorry overturned on the A47's west-bound exit from the Hardwick roundabout in Norfolk at about 5.30am on June 20 this year.
Pc David Cole said there had been great concern that Mr Rowe had sustained serious injuries to his lower body and legs.
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The tachograph in the lorry showed it had been travelling at 37mph – within the 40mph speed limit – and the vehicle, which was loaded with oranges, had no defects which could have caused the crash.
The inquest heard that Mr Rowe died on June 23 from adult respiratory distress syndrome and multiple rib fractures. He had had a lung removed in 1986.
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His widow, Mary, said her husband, who was on his way to Spalding, Lincolnshire told her he had swerved to avoid a deer running across the road.
Pc Roger Hobbs came across the overturned lorry and stopped to try to help Mr Rowe.
He said: "He would not be the first lorry driver who has hit the slip road there a little bit wrong and turned over."
Mr Rowe's family from Charsfield, near Woodbridge, started collecting donations for the Norfolk Fire Service Benevolent Fund as a tribute to the rescue efforts of 25 firefighters.
Mr Rowe worked for HJ Calver haulage contractors of Felixstowe and had made the journey several times.
A married father he was a well-known and popular character in the Ipswich and Woodbridge area and during a varied career – was a pigman, milkman and a driver for Atlas taxis.
He ran Tuck's café in Bramford Road, Ipswich, and the Golden Grenadier fish and chip shop in Melton.
