Death of Norfolk undertaker crushed by coffin lifter 'accident'- inquest
Sally Blundell, 58, had been working alone at the branch in Swaffham on December 1 2023
Last updated 21 hours ago
An undertaker was accidentally crushed to death after she positioned herself in the scissor lift of a coffin lifter machine at a funeral parlour and it descended unexpectedly onto her, an inquest concluded.
Sally Blundell, 58, was found trapped underneath a trolley used to move bodies from cold storage in a back room at a branch of the East of England Co-op Funeral Services.
The grandmother had been working alone at the branch in Swaffham, Norfolk on December 1 2023 and was found by a colleague from a neighbouring branch in Dereham.
The colleague had attended after a woman, who had gone to a pre-arranged appointment to visit a deceased relative at the Swaffham branch, found no staff there and raised concerns.
Norfolk area coroner Yvonne Blake told jurors that expert evidence indicated a fault was found with the hydraulic scissor lift mortuary trolley after Mrs Blundell’s death.
She said the fault was that the trolley “descended unexpectedly”.
The inquest was earlier told that Mrs Blundell, of Great Cressingham, died of “contusion and compression of the chest by an external object”.
She was found in a kneeling and bent forward position over the base of trolley, with the scissor lift having descended onto her, the inquest was earlier told.
The coroner earlier told the hearing it was not known why Mrs Blundell had “inserted herself” in the frame of the device but that her glasses had been found on the floor.
Jurors returned a conclusion of accidental death after hearing evidence at an inquest in Norwich, on the third day of proceedings.
They recorded that she died at some point between 9.46am when she was last seen on CCTV at the funeral parlour and 12.06pm when she was found.
The inquest was earlier told there are no CCTV cameras in sensitive areas of the funeral parlour where bodies are kept.
The background:
Mrs Blundell had worked for the Co-op at different branch for five years from 2016 to 2021 before rejoining the Swaffham branch in 2022.
Mark Ling, a cluster manager at the East of England Co-op, said he showed Mrs Blundell how to use the hydraulic scissor lift mortuary trolley after she returned.
He said he was “satisfied she was competent to operate it” and described her as “always a stickler with the rules”.
“If something wasn’t right she would tell me,” he said.
He added: “In my experience she would work safely and report any concerns.”
He said Mrs Blundell was “very experienced” and a “very good arranger”.
Neil Renault, a risk and assurance officer for East of England Co-op, said that workers “receive training in the safe use of the coffin lifter”.
He said Mrs Blundell had been trained in person in use of the trolley by both Mr Ling and Stephen Kemp, a colleague at a neighbouring branch.
“This was notwithstanding her previous five years with the business and she was familiar with the use of similar equipment,” he said.
Mrs Blundell’s glasses were found on the floor.
Her daughter Lucy Blundell said her mother “wore glasses all the time”.
“I understand that without glasses mum would have suffered from blurred vision, but I can’t comment on the extent of the impairment,” she said.
She said she could not comment on how the glasses came to be on the floor.
Next steps:
The coroner said she was considering writing to the equipment’s manufacturer A R Twigg and Son with her concerns about this issue in a Prevention of Future Deaths report.
She was told by barrister Dominic Kay for the East of England Co-op that the chain no longer uses this type of trolley.