Man died in freak storm

7:54am Thursday 16th August 2007

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A 72-YEAR-OLD man lay dead in his driveway, undiscovered for a day, following the freak winds in January.

Robert Smith was found under a fencing panel at his home on Kingsway North on Friday, January 19, following the storms that had swept the town the day before.

An inquest into his death, held by Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg last Thursday, heard how the former council worker had been to visit his sister Doreen Haill on the Thursday afternoon to drop off a birthday card for her granddaughter before driving back to his home.

Mrs Haill told the inquest: "I phoned him every night to see that he was alright. He said to me you don't need to ring me tonight, I am all right.' On the Friday I rang him and there was no answer."

She rang her niece to ask her to go to check up on him. Her partner Chris Hill arrived there at 6.30pm to find the house in darkness and then went inside Mr Smith's home.

He said: "I went in expecting to fall over him if he had collapsed. It was only when I came outside that I noticed the car door was ajar."

He then looked at the fallen fence panel, which was approximately 6ft high, and spotted Mr Smith underneath it.

"He had no pulse and he was freezing cold," he added.

The police carried out a search of Mr Smith's home and found no sign of a disturbance. In his car was a daily newspaper and the Warrington Guardian.

Pathologist Dr Al-Jafari recorded two superficial abrasions to Mr Smith's nose and left temple and no signs of internal damage from the panel.

He concluded that being trapped under the panel may have made Mr Smith, who was already suffering from bronchopneumonia, weaker and that it may have been a few hours before he died.

Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg ruled that Mr Smith died partly from an accidental fall and partly from naturally occurring respiratory and cardiac illnesses.

vicki.stockman@guardiangrp.co.uk