A BASSENTHWAITE farmer was tragically killed in a quad bike accident a coroner has ruled.

Martyn Mawson, 52, a beef and sheep farmer of High Side Farm at the foot of Skiddaw, died at the scene of the quad bike accident on Sunday, May 3 despite multiple attempts to try and revive him.

In the hour-long inquest that was held yesterday multiple statements were read which told how the family were alerted to the incident when the sheepdog returned down the side of the fell without Mr Mawson.

This prompted Mr Mawson’s son, Eddie, to go and look for his dad, who found him lying with the quad bike on top of him. He quickly called for help from Mr Mawson’s wife Corinne and emergency services and started CPR to try and revive him.

The statement read to the court from Mrs Mawson explained: “On the day of the accident it was just like any normal day, Martyn was up at 5am like he always was. He was walking round doing checks on the sheep and my parents were visiting and we sat and had a cooked breakfast.

“Martyn took the dog and went to get the sheep in. Martyn went up the fell on the quad bike to get the second lamb. I asked Eddie to try and ring his dad as he had not come back for some time. I probably rang Martyn about nine times and just couldn’t get an answer.

“Eddie went up the fell and I said I’d put the dog away and then come up. Eddie rang me and said ‘it’s bad get up here now’. I headed up the fell but I could hear Eddie shouting every now and then. I tried to ring him but it was engaged so he must have been on the phone to the ambulance. As I got closer I could hear him counting so I knew he was doing CPR and I could see the quad bike was on its side.”

Multiple emergency services, including mountain rescue teams and the Great North Air Ambulance, were called. A statement read of behalf of collision investigating officer, PC Craig Irving said: “Considering the physical evidence at the scene and the account I was given on arrival. I am satisfied that the quad is likely to have lifted at the front during contact with a fallen tree effectively causing a wheelie. When the front of the quad bike lifted it will have bounced off the tree trunk and I imagine it will have been extremely hard to get back under control due to the terrain and gradient.”

In his concluding statement, assistant coroner, Simon Ward explained: “He set off to get sheep in the steepness of the slope perhaps played a part in him not seeing the tree trunk and he eventually struck it. The quad bike lifted up and no doubt toppled backwards and landed on Martyn and I do find that the weight of the bike itself lead to the asphyxiation referred to by the pathologist.

“Martyn very tragically died as a result of an accident. On May 3, 2020, Mr Martyn Mawson was working on his farm he was riding his quad bike to tend to his sheep on a steep slope and his bike struck a fallen tree the bike landed on him.”