Crush death soldier Cameron Laing 'may have been fatigued'

Pte Cameron Laing suffered head and chest injuries

A soldier who was crushed to death trying to move a trailer on a training exercise may have been fatigued after a 15-hour day, an inquest has heard.

Pte Cameron Laing, 20, from Nottingham, and colleagues from the Royal Logistics Corps, were manhandling the trailer on to a tow bar when it moved suddenly.

He suffered head and chest injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The exercise was at Bracken Tor near the Okehampton Army Camp, Devon on 29 April last year.

An inquest jury at County Hall in Exeter heard how the trucks had been on the road since 05:00 BST and their crews had exceeded the Army's normal 13-hour daily work limit.

Private Laing, a father-to-be from Hucknall, died while helping to move a trailer when the brake slipped on a truck and it rolled back and crushed him.

An Army safety expert said a number of procedures had not been followed correctly in the run up to the accident and it had been unsafe to uncouple the trailer without the driver and crew understanding its braking control system.

Ministry of Defence accident investigator Lieutenant Colonel Ian Burton recommended that in future routes should be checked with maps and new signs should direct vehicles away from the road to Bracken Tor.

He said: "Fatigue may also have played a part. They had got up at 05:00 BST, left at 0:600 BST and this accident occurred just before 22:00 BST.

"They had been on the go all day, although they had a break, and it is highly likely they would have been fatigued.

"The regulations stipulate a maximum operating duty of 13 hours and they had been operating for over 15 hours."

The inquest is expected to finish on Wednesday.