Two men have been acquitted of charges related to the death of former ELO cellist Mike Edwards in 2010. A Plymouth court found that Brian Burden and Russell Williams were not responsible for an accident in which Mike Edwards was crushed by a giant bale of hay.
Edwards was driving his van near Totnes in Devon on 3 September 2010, when a rolling hay bale burst through a wire fence, a thin hedge, and on to the A381. The 600kg bale killed the 62-year-old instantly.
An inquest jury had ruled it an accidental death in 2011, but Williams and Burden were charged with health and safety offences. Burden, 46, owned the farm from which the bale rolled; Williams, then 21, was a contractor hired to bale cut grass for silage. "This was a farming accident," said prosecutor Rupert Lowe, "but one that was easily preventable."
Plymouth crown court found that the two men had adequately assessed the risk and that the disaster occurred despite their actions, not because of them. Williams said he had left the 5ft bale "halfway down the field", against a wire fence. "It was stationary when I moved away and I did not see it move," he told the court last year. "I completed the next round of the field and when I got back up the top I saw the traffic below and I could see the last bale I'd dropped was no longer there."
In March 2011, Edwards' family called on the Health and Safety Executive to mount a campaign publicising the dangers of baling on sloping ground, emphasising the danger of round bales. "My brother's death has touched so many people's lives, not just my own family but the very many friends he had here in Devon, his music pupils, the many ensembles and orchestras he played with and loyal fans of ELO," said David Edwards. "He will be sadly missed by us all."
One of ELO's early members, Edwards played at their first gig and on the band's debut album. He quit the group in 1974, just before they recorded their most successful albums.