A SHEPHERDESS was crushed to death after her quad bike overloaded with weed killer toppled over, an inquest heard.

Laura Simmons was found dead on Spoonley Farm in Winchcombe by a jogger with a broken neck after she was crushed beneath a 350kg quad bike in June 2023.

At the time of death, Police and detectives ruled out suspicious circumstances – but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched a probe into the tragedy.

The inquest into Ms Simmons's death at Gloucestershire Coroner's Court heard how the quad bike rack had exceeded its weight limit by 19kg, and she was believed to have been riding one-handed, using one hand to spray the herbicide from a lance.

HSE Mechanical Engineering Specialist David Whitton had examined the quad bike and found all four tyres were underinflated, with one completely flat.

In a report, David Whitton concluded: "I found several factors that would have reduced the dynamic stability of the ATV, which would have increased the risk of the ATV overturning.

"I'm of the opinion that the ATV overturned as a result of one or more of these factors whilst manoeuvring on uneven terrain."

An HSE inspector, Emily O'Neil, told the inquest that using a quad bike and lance to spray weed killer is not recommended, and they advise against it.

Ms Simmons's then employer, farmer Toby Baxter, said that spraying weed killer between the electric fence posts on a quad bike was "quite a delicate, slow job" and was undertaken at a "walking pace".

He added: "Laura was a very careful operator… it was just a combination of unfortunate circumstances; the ground was uneven but not unduly uneven.

"It's such a mundane place, it's not somewhere you'd go to and think 'that's a stupid place to go on a quad bike'.

"This is a tragic accident, it's affected everyone."

The 22-year-old was not wearing a helmet, which Detective Sergeant Jonathan Williams of Gloucestershire Constabulary believed would not have prevented her death in this case.

Her mother, Karen Simmons, had travelled down from her home on Shetland to holiday with  – Ms Simmons and spent an hour with her before she went to work on the day of her death.

"Laura was brought up on a sheep farm and she did home-schooling, so she was helping a lot with her father on the sheep farm," she said.

"We had several quads, and she was driving them from an early age.

"Certainly, from early teens, she was driving quads, and she was careful, I used to watch her driving them, and she didn't drive excessively speedily."

The jury returned a unanimous decision of accidental death.