A driver involved in the UK's worst mass water poisoning has told an inquest he had to guess which tank to put 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate in.
It affected the drinking water of about 20,000 homes in Camelford, Cornwall, causing rashes, diarrhoea, mouth ulcers and other health problems.
Carole Cross, 59, who lived in Camelford at the time of the poisoning in 1988, died 16 years later.
Large amounts of aluminium were found in her brain after her death in 2004.
Mrs Cross and her husband Doug moved to Dulverton in Somerset two years after the poisoning.
The original inquest into her death was adjourned two years ago, when the coroner asked for more tests to be carried out.
When it resumed in Taunton earlier, relief driver John Stephens said the Lowermoor water works were unattended when he arrived with his delivery.
He told the inquest he had let himself into the works with a key given to him by the regular driver Barry Davey.
Unknown to Mr Stephens the former South West Water Authority, which ran the works, used the same key at all its plants.
Mr Stephens said he had believed the key would let him into the site and open one tank.
Full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-11667471
It affected the drinking water of about 20,000 homes in Camelford, Cornwall, causing rashes, diarrhoea, mouth ulcers and other health problems.
Carole Cross, 59, who lived in Camelford at the time of the poisoning in 1988, died 16 years later.
Large amounts of aluminium were found in her brain after her death in 2004.
Mrs Cross and her husband Doug moved to Dulverton in Somerset two years after the poisoning.
The original inquest into her death was adjourned two years ago, when the coroner asked for more tests to be carried out.
When it resumed in Taunton earlier, relief driver John Stephens said the Lowermoor water works were unattended when he arrived with his delivery.
He told the inquest he had let himself into the works with a key given to him by the regular driver Barry Davey.
Unknown to Mr Stephens the former South West Water Authority, which ran the works, used the same key at all its plants.
Mr Stephens said he had believed the key would let him into the site and open one tank.
Full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-11667471
