Sally Blundell, 58, was found dead by a colleague after she was crushed by a scissor lift used to move bodies out of a fridge at the Co-Op funeral home in Swaffham, Norfolk, an inquest heard
A funeral worker found a colleague crushed to death by equipment used to move bodies from a fridge, an inquest has heard.
Funeral administrator Sally Blundell, 58, had been working alone at the East of England Co-op Funeral Services branch in Swaffham, Norfolk on December 1 2023. The grandma was found by a colleague from another branch, who had attended after concerns were raised by a family who had a pre-arranged appointment at the funeral parlour but found no staff there. Stephen Kemp, who works in the branch in nearby Dereham, rang emergency services.
Police officer Luke Heffer said he went through the chapel of rest to a back room at the funeral parlour. He said there was a large fridge in the room and a “scissor lift” that was “used to lift caskets in and out of the fridge”.
The policeman said that Mrs Blundell was “found trapped in the scissor lift”, lying across a bar and with the upper part of her body inside the frame.
Norfolk area coroner Yvonne Blake said Mrs Blundell’s medical cause of death was recorded as “contusion and compression of the chest by an external object”. Dawn Salisbury, who had made arrangements to see a deceased relative, became concerned when there were no staff at the funeral parlour for her 11am appointment.
In a statement read to the Norwich inquest, she said that “after about 10 minutes I decided to ring the landline number for that branch”.When she could not hear a phone ringing within the branch, she tried calling the celebrant she had been dealing with and a message was passed to another branch.
Mr Kemp, a funeral manager at the Dereham branch of East of England Co-op Funeral Services, said he asked security to remotely check CCTV cameras at the Swaffham branch.
He said they could see two ladies sat in the reception area, who had attended the 11am appointment, and Mrs Blundell’s car in the car park, but no sign of her.
The inquest heard there are no CCTV cameras in sensitive areas of the funeral parlour where bodies are kept. Mr Kemp went to the Swaffham branch and discovered Mrs Blundell was dead.
In a statement, he said that a “hydraulic hoist had come down on her body and was crushing her over the chest area”. He said it was “apparent to me she was already dead”.
Mrs Blundell’s daughter, Lucy Blundell, said in a statement: “I understand she had raised concerns about lone working.” She said that her mother, of Great Cressingham, was “respected by her colleagues” and had a “wide network of friends”.
The coroner said Mrs Blundell was last seen on CCTV in the branch at 9.46am on December 1, walking away after taking a call on her work mobile phone. Mr Kemp is seen to arrive at the branch just after midday, when he found Mrs Blundell.
HSE specialist inspector Jonathan Wright, who examined the trolley, said in a report summarised by the coroner that “there was a problem with the release lever mechanism which could have contributed to the incident”. He described situations where the trolley “could descend unexpectedly”.
One was that “the release valve lever could be released with the operator expecting the spring to stop descent and see it appears to have done so, whereas it might only have reduced the descent speed”.
Describing another possible scenario, Mr Wright said the lever could have been “left in the notch position – jolting or moving the trolley could have caused its release, causing it to descend”.
The inquest, being heard with a jury, continues.
