A SCAFFOLDING delivery driver has died after being hit by falling poles.

Police said the 32-year-old man from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, had been helping unload the steel poles from a flatbed lorry when he sustained fatal injuries.

Emergency services were called to Petre Street, in Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, at 1.15pm on Thursday after a forklift truck approached the lorry.

A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said the lorry driver, who has not been named, had reportedly been standing on the trailer and fell backwards before the poles fell on top of him.

She said no arrests had been made and the incident was being treated as an accident.

South Yorkshire Coroner’s Court is due to open an inquest into the driver’s death.

The Heath and Safety Executive is investigating.