A retired Shropshire transport firm boss was killed when his sit and ride lawnmower plunged into a ditch pinning him underneath, an inquest heard.
John Russell Cadwallader, who ran one of the largest privately-owned haulage companies in the UK, died cutting his son’s lawn in Oswestry.
The 82-year-old retired from G and R Cadwallader in 1996 and his sons John and David opened Cadwallader Limited, in Maesbury Road.
Mr Cadwallader, of Weston Lane, Oswestry, was cutting the lawn at the Hayes Barns in Racecourse Road for one of his sons who was renovating the property. But when he did not return home, his wife Gwyneth drove out there and found him trapped underneath the lawnmower.
A post mortem revealed Mr Cadwallader, known as Russell, died of asphyxiation after the accident on May 6.
Philip Tyler, coroner’s officer for Shropshire, told a hearing in Shrewsbury yesterday that when police were called to the accident they “found the deceased underneath an upside-down lawnmower in a ditch”.
He said: “Paramedics attended the scene and pronounced life extinct at 7.34pm. Police were satisfied there was nothing untoward and listed the death as non-suspicious. A post mortem revealed that the deceased died from asphyxiation.”
John Ellery, coroner for Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Mr Cadwallader left school aged 14 to work as a labourer on Weston Farm, in Oswestry. But because of his interest in farming and machinery he left the farm after securing a job as an agricultural engineer with FH Burgess.
He then went to work for the Barrett family at Bromwich Park, where he had an opportunity to drive a livestock lorry.
In the late 1950s, Mr Cadwallader bought his first truck and started carrying goods for the Heinz Corporation.
“Success there enabled him to negotiate work with British Steel,” John Cadwallader added. “But to fulfil the new work he had to persuade his brother, Gordon, to sell his car and buy a truck.”
This was the beginning of G and R Cadwallader.
Thanks to his hard work and, his family said, some good luck, Mr Cadwallader was eventually able to buy the farm he had started his working life on.
“By 1996 retirement was beckoning and the old company was closed,” said John Cadwallader.
It was replaced by a new firm, Cadwallader Limited, run by John and his brother David.
Mr Cadwallader is survived by his wife, Gwyneth, sons John and David, daughters-in-law and three grandsons.