A CONSCIENTIOUS worker took a chance and paid for it with his life when a trench he had dug collapsed, suffocating him.

Drainage expert Stephen White, 49, was building a well to supply his home on Hudford Farm, Clatworthy, where he operated his business, SDW Drainage and Water Supply, when he died on November 8 last year.

At his inquest in Taunton on Wednesday, a jury was told that Mr White had dug a trench some 10 feet deep and was laying concrete rings to form a well.

The trench was some eight feet wide at the top and narrowed to two feet at the bottom, and a polythene pipe was threaded through the lowest ring which would run downhill to Hudford Stables.

Mr White spotted a kink in the pipe and went down to flatten it with a metal bar, but the trench was not shored up and the soil turned out to be unstable. Moments later, he was submerged.

Coroner Michael Rose recorded a verdict of accidental death and said the cause was asphyxia due to traumatic injury.

Mr White was being helped on the job by Warren West, of St Patrick's Road, Taunton, a general labourer whom he knew personally.

Mr White's landlord, farmer David Farrant, was also at the scene - and Mr West said it was only Mr Farrant's "nagging to get out" that saved his own life.

Both men were commended by the coroner and the jury for their unstinting efforts to save Mr White: "They were aware of the danger [to themselves] but did not hesitate," said Mr Rose,

The inquest heard from Mr Farrant that Mr White had found a natural spring and wanted to use it to supply high pressure water with which to clean his equipment.

He had already dug a trench and it had filled with water before the three men went to the hilltop site to build the well. They spent the morning scooping out water with a digger bucket.

After lunch, Mr White and Mr West went back to the trench: "I was in the hole when David [Farrant] came back and kept nagging me to get out. He must have said it 20 times," said Mr West, adding that Mr White insisted on going down the hole by ladder to flatten out the pipe.

"He was using an ordinary bar and hit slate. He hit the floor once and the trench caved in . . . he wasn't visible at all."

He said that, just before the collapse, Mr White spoke to him: "He said 'I shouldn't be in here'."

In a statement, Mr Farrant said he told Mr White "a number of times" to leave it: "I kept saying it's not worth losing a life for. I kept saying 'nobody in the trench'.

"Stephen got a ladder in the trench and went in. I kept saying no but he didn't listen. He was in but a moment - the side went over him. He was covered completely."

Both men made frantic attempts to find and free him: "After about two minutes, I found his head and pulled his woolly hat off but his head was dark blue. I said 'he's dead'," said Mr Farrant.

He said it was about an hour before an ambulance arrived and a paramedic confirmed that Mr White was dead.

The victim's brother, Michael White, of Huish Champflower, who was called to the scene, said the earth had compacted up to Mr White's knees.

"They had done well to dig as far as they had," he said, adding that had he been alive, Mr White would have been able to breathe.

PC John Hill said the body had to remain in the trench until the next day.

He was called to the scene at 4.50pm, and by the time darkness fell there was heavy rain and the fire and ambulance services "declared it too dangerous to recover the deceased at that time", he said.

Barrister Simon Morgan said his client, Mr Farrant, extended his deepest regret for the incident.

"Even now, he is almost inconsolable about it," he added.

The jury said both men had tried to save Mr White and that Mr Farrant should be commended for saving the life of Mr West.

Summing up, Mr Rose said it was a tragic case: "Stephen White was a conscientious worker; he set up his own business.

"All the evidence is that everybody tried their best. David Farrant and Warren West, aware of the dangers, didn't hesitate to go down and try to save him."