A farming partnership has been fined £20k after an employee trapped their leg in a harvester machine, as watchdog warns it will not hesitate to take action
A Cheshire potato supplier has been fined £20,000 after a 20-year-old employee trapped his leg in a harvester machine.
The accident happened as the employee was assessing a blockage in the machine, when the roller mechanism caught his leg and pulled it into the device, causing multiple injuries.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the guard gates to the machine were open and the machine was not isolated. It also found that the farm business, LP Ollier & Son, failed to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, by following a suitable safe system of work.
LP Ollier & Son pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £20,000 with a £2,000 victim surcharge and ordered to pay £5,110.80 in costs at Warrington Magistrates Court.
HSE guidance states that employers must follow the ‘safe stop’ procedure when using a potato harvester, including when dealing with blockages. Suitable training must be given, and monitoring and supervision must be in place to ensure that the ‘safe stop’ procedure is adhered to at all times.
“All too often, serious and sometimes fatal incidents occur as a result of inadequate systems of work in relation to potato harvesters,” said HSE inspector, Joseph Wright.
“This case was a wholly avoidable incident caused by the failure to follow the safe stop procedure for the potato harvester, and ensure that the machine was fully isolated before a blockage was addressed.
“The fine imposed on LP Ollier & Son should underline to everyone in the potato harvesting trade and wider agricultural industry, that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to abide by the law very seriously. We will not hesitate to take action when there is a failure to keep employees and contractors safe while they are working.”
