Farm fined after worker’s leg trapped in machine
A farming partnership is fined £20,000 as an employee trapped his leg in a potato harvester machine. The incident occurred whilst working on a farm in Cheshire.
The employee, who was 20-years-old at the time, was working for LP Ollier & Son on its potato farm. Whilst assessing a blockage in the potato harvester machine, the roller mechanism caught his right leg. Pulling his leg into the device, resulted in causing serious injuries including crushing, fractures, nerve damage and skin damage. He has been unable to work in agriculture since the incident.
Failure to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery
An investigation by the HSE found the guard gates to the machine were open and the machine was not isolated. LP Ollier & Son failed to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, namely the rotating parts of a potato harvester by means of implementing and following a suitable safe system of work.
HSE guidance states that employers must follow the ‘safe stop’ procedure when using a potato harvester, including dealing with blockages. This is in order to ensure that dangerous parts are not accessed when the machine is powered. Suitable training, monitoring and supervision must be in place ensuring the ‘safe stop’ procedure is adhered to at all times.
Tip: HSE guidance can be found: Safe use of potato harvesters – HSE.
LP Ollier & Son, pleaded guilty to breaching Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The partnership was fined £20,000 with a £2000 victim surcharge and ordered to pay £5,110.80 in costs at Warrington Magistrates Court.
Inadequate systems of work
HSE inspector said: “Serious and sometimes fatal incidents occur as a result of inadequate systems of work in relation to potato harvesters. This case was wholly avoidable. They Failed to follow the safe stop procedure for the potato harvester, and ensure the machine was fully isolated before a blockage was addressed. Therefore, if the partnership ensured a suitable safe system of work was followed when blockages occurred, life-changing injuries would not have occurred.
“The fine imposed underlines that the courts and HSE, take a failure to abide by the law very seriously. Therefore, action is taken when failure to keep employees and contractors safe while they are working.”
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