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A farmer died after an animal feed bin was unknowingly overfilled and toppled over on to him and his son, an inquest has found.

Iwan Llwyd Wynne Evans, 78, suffered traumatic crush injuries in the incident at the family's Cleiriau Isaf Farm in Aberhosan, Powys, in February 2023.

Emergency services attended but, despite efforts to revive Mr Evans, he died at the scene.

The coroner at the Caernarfon hearing ruled the death was accidental.

The inquest heard evidence from Mr Evans' son, Dafydd, and health and safety experts about how the animal feed bin had only been bought a few weeks before the fatal incident.

Dafydd Evans said he and his father had built the flat-packed feed bin together and believed they had followed all the correct instructions.

The inquest heard the feed bin had been placed in a barn ready to be filled on 17 February.

Mr Evans told the inquest that the instructions were for feed bins holding 3.5 and 4.5 tonnes of animal food, and they had ordered 4.4 tonnes of cattle feed to be delivered on the day his father died.

In a statement, the delivery driver Robert Mason described how he finished unloading the feed into the food silo when he noticed it moving.

He said he shouted to both the farmers to get out of the way, but the bin fell on to them.

"Iwan took the full impact of the bin," said Mr Mason.

"I could see that Iwan was trapped."

'Multiple traumatic injuries'

He said the farmer's son was also covered by animal feed, and he went to help him.

"Dafydd told me to help his father. I told him I thought he was gone," he added.

The emergency services arrived and tried to resuscitate Mr Evans, but his injuries were too serious, the court heard.

The hearing was told Mr Evans died from "multiple traumatic injuries".

A health and safety investigation revealed the feed bin was only supposed to hold 3.5 tonnes of feed, and the concrete foundations under it failed when almost an extra tonne of additional feed had been added.

"In my opinion, the feed storage bin toppled over when the feeder was overloaded," said specialist Simon Lawrence.

In family statements, Mr Evans was described a man whose life revolved around the farm, the chapel and music - especially singing.

Offering her condolences to Mr Evans' family, the senior coroner for north-west Wales Kate Robertson recorded a conclusion of accidental death.