The death of a 56-year-old man who was crushed by his own lorry was an accident, an inquest jury has concluded.

Paul Nodding from Thurston suffered multiple injuries when he became trapped between the lorry cab and another vehicle at a Toyota site, near Derby.

He suffered fatal injuries to his head, neck and back and was declared dead at the scene by a paramedic 30 minutes after the alarm was raised in the early hours of January 22 last year.

The jury of four men and four women took almost three hours at Derby and South Derbyshire Coroner’s Court to determine that he died as a result of an accident.

The foreman of the jury said: “Mr Nodding began the coupling process between his cab and trailer, leaving the parking brake in the cab off and the engine running.

“He continued with the process, connecting the red and yellow air line and, when the second airline was attached, the trailer started to move away. At some point after, Mr Nodding became trapped between his cab and another trailer receiving multiple injuries.”

At the end of the three-day hearing, Derbyshire deputy coroner Louise Pinder said she would not be writing to Toyota to ask the firm to implement any changes or improvements to its working practices.

During this week’s inquest, evidence was heard from a number of witnesses.

Detective Constable Bernard Glynn, who led the initial police investigation into Paul Nodding’s death, said there were no physical witnesses to the accident and officers concluded Mr Nodding’s death was due to “driver error”.

He said he was shown by Goldstar Transport, the haulage firm for which Mr Nodding worked, the correct procedures for coupling cabs and trailers. This included having the brakes on in both sections.

The inquest was told that, shortly after 12.30am on January 22, 2014, as Mr Nodding was joining his cab and trailer together, both units started to roll forward slowly.

Mr Nodding ran in front of them and was crushed between the cab unit and another trailer.

Detective Constable Glynn said: “The safety features that were in place were either ignored or he failed to notice them.

“Had he followed Health and Safety Executive advice that was given to him by Goldstar, the collision would not have occurred.”