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12
Nov
Victim of fatal North Stainley lawnmower incident was warned, colleagues claim
Warning: this article contains details some readers may find distressing.
A man found dead in a North Stainley pond was told not to operate his lawnmower near the water, his colleagues have said.
Kamil Grygieniec, 23, died just off Watermill Lane on October 8, 2021.
The grounds maintenance worker was working for MHS Countryside Management Ltd but was due to start a new job the following week.
The inquest at Thirsk Racecourse yesterday (November 11) heard the Kubota G23 lawnmower Mr Grygieniec was operating was not fitted with a rollover protective system (ROPS) despite it being a legal requirement.
Written statements by three men who worked for MHS were read at the inquest today. All three declined to answer questions.
Senior coroner Jonathan Heath told the jury witnesses could legally refuse to answer any questions that could incriminate them.
Team leader Matthew Suarez, who worked alongside Mr Grygieniec on the fateful day, described Mr Grygieniec as “competent” and someone who paid attention to detail.
He’d never seen Mr Grygieniec operate a ride-on lawnmower but he knew he had experience driving them.
The two men arrived at the company’s yard in Thornborough, near Bedale, that morning.
Mr Suarez’s statement said:
I recall Robert Dungey [MHS works manager] giving Kamil and I instructions that only the flat bit [of the North Stainley pond area] should be cut using a ride-on lawnmower. He said we should not get too close to the edge due to the slope.
As far as I know, Kamil acknowledged this and did not suggest he wasn’t clear.
Mr Suarez said he would use a strimmer in the areas Mr Grygieniec could not cut on the lawnmower and reiterated to Mr Grygieniec to stay on flat ground.
By the afternoon Mr Grygieniec could not be found and his lawnmower was found upright in the pond.
Emergency services were called and Mr Grygieniec’s body was found trapped beneath the lawnmower. He was certified dead at 4.45pm.
A pathologist attributed his cause of death to head injuries.
Kamil Grygieniec. Credit: Facebook
‘I told them not to cut the grass on the banking’
Mr Dungey told Mr Suarez and Mr Grygieniec they would spend the day cutting grass around North Stainley as part of a contract between MHS and the parish council.
Mr Dungey, who described Mr Grygieniec as a “competent user” of the lawnmower, as well as a happy and hard-working man, said in his statement:
Before they left, I asked them both if they were OK. Kamil said he was fine and would show Matt the route at North Stainley to familiarise him with the site.
I told them not to cut the banking on the ride-on lawnmower as it was too steep. I said the pond areas would need to be strimmed. They both said: ‘ok, no problem’.
When Mr Dungey arrived at the North Stainley site later that afternoon, he asked Mr Suarez where Mr Grygieniec was as he wanted to say goodbye and thank him for his hard work on his last day with the company.
He eventually saw the lawnmower in the pond and when he switched the ignition off, saw a piece of what appeared to be scalp on the bank of the pond.
Mr Dungey’s statement added:
The lawnmower Kamil used was a Kubota G23, which we had owned for four years. There were never any problems with the mower and it was used daily.
Kamil used it many times without problems.
He said the Kubota model did not include a rollover protective system but other ride-on mowers owned by MHS did.
Mr Dungey admitted he did not know the incline of the sloping bank at North Stainley, but said he asked Steven Houston, managing director at MHS, to invest in an inclinometer to measure inclines. He claimed Mr Houston did not do this.
Ex-MHS employees yesterday told the court they never received strict instructions on using a ride-on lawnmower but were told to cut to “where they felt comfortable”.
However, Mr Dungey said he “always reiterated any site risks” to people before they started a job and insisted he told people never to use a ride-on lawnmower near the North Stainley pond.
Annual training sessions were stopped in 2019, but Mr Dungey said Mr Grygieniec – who joined MHS in 2020 – received "in-house training" and worked alongside “experienced colleagues” until they felt he was competent enough to use machinery on his own.
MHS did not have “site-specific” risk assessments, rather just a “generic” risk assessment, and Mr Dungey admitted he did not know the difference between the two before Mr Grygieniec's death.
The inquest continues.
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