A DUDLEY father died when he was crushed by the car he was working on, an inquest heard.

Retried HGV driver Michael Edward Ashton, who was also known as Mick, had been tinkering with the vehicle in Brettle & Son yard in James Scott Road, Cradley, May 19.

The inquest, held at the Black Country Coroners Court in Oldbury today (Friday), heard that Mr Ashton, of The Parade, had frequently use the site to fix up cars.

He was seen working underneath a silver Vauxhall Omega at 1.10pm by Richard Williams, a HGV technician working at the nearby MEK Commercials.

But between then and when Mr Williams next saw the 64-year-old at 4.45pm, the jack he had used to raise the car had collapsed and the vehicle had crushed him.

In a written statement, read out at the inquest, Mr Williams said: "I'd gone back out to the yard to fetch a HGV I needed to work on and I could see Mick's legs underneath the vehicle but they weren't moving.

"The vehicle seemed to be low so I ran over and called his name but he didn't respond. I felt his leg and he was cold, I could see the vehicle was on top of him."

Mr Williams rushed to call for an ambulance and got a colleague to help jack up the car and free Mr Ashton but it was too late.

"We pulled him from under the car and onto a board he had been lying on but we could see he was dead.

"Shortly afterwards the ambulance and fire brigade arrived and confirmed he had passed away."

Senior Black Country Coroner, Zafar Siddique, said the medical cause of death was asphyxia due to crush injuries to the chest and recorded a verdict of accidental death.