Mum questions if son was under ‘pressure’ before workplace death, inquest hears

The 38-year-old man was working on a crane before he died at work

A mum has questioned whether “pressure” was put on her son to finish a job before he died in a workplace accident, an inquest has heard. Adam William Duroe-Mayo, 38, died in St Neots on February 3, 2025, after working on a crane.

A pre-inquest review hearing into his death held on Wednesday (July 22) heard that Adam was in an “area that wasn’t safe for him to be in” when the accident happened, as stated by Coroner Simon Milburn.

His cause of death was confirmed to be a “subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by skull fractures” as a result of a “blunt force trauma to the head”.

The court heard that Adam was “working alone” at the time of the incident, as two other workers who were helping him had left. Mr Milburn said these two workers, who will be called as live witnesses at the inquest, had “left to do another job”.

Adam’s parents attended the pre-inquest hearing. His mother, Mrs Duroe-Mayo, questioned if the other two workers could have “seen the first job through”.

Mrs Duroe-Mayo then told the court that Adam was “seen on the phone” to someone at Lodge Tyres, who he worked for. She claims that Adam was told to “finish the job”, but added that “no one knows what he was told”.

She added: “There is always going to be hearsay. It’s going to be one of those things of who knows what was said.” She then claimed that there was an “awful lot of pressure” on Adam to “get things done”.

Mr Milburn told Mrs Duroe-Mayo that these questions would be answered in the scope of the full inquest, which aims to find out what happened on the day Adam died.

Later in the hearing, Mr Milburn said a health and safety specialist would look at two potential causes of the accident in the next inquest. These would be whether there was an “over-inflation of the tyre” and whether that was an “operator error or an issue with the inflator”. The other potential cause is if there was “potential for the locking ring to have been inserted the wrong way up”.

Six live witnesses are expected to be called to the inquest. These will be: two from crane company Ainscough; potentially three from Lodge Tyres; and a health and safety executive inspector who assessed the site. Other witness statements are expected to be read out will be from the post mortem report, toxicology report, and police officers who attended at the time.

A jury will also be called to the inquest, which is expected to last three days. It is expected to take place in early 2027.