DANGEROUS working conditions at a Merseyside fairground led to a grandfather's death, an inquest heard yesterday.
Engineer William Birchall, 59, was killed when he was dragged into the mechanism of the Skyride at Southport Pleasureland in August 2004.
Workers like him were put in a "catch 22" situation, where they either had to clip a harness onto dangerous machinery or risk falling 10m to their deaths, the hearing at Bootle Town Hall was told.
Mr Birchall, from St Helens, was greasing machinery on the ski lift-style ride when the accident happened.
Climbing a 10m tower, he attached his harness to one of the ride's two "bull wheels", which turn the cables carrying passenger cars.
Using a two-way radio, it is believed he instructed a colleague to start turning the wheel, but his harness pulled his arm inside the machinery and he became trapped. He suffered a heart attack and died at the scene.
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