Pet food firm fined £100,000 after worker crushed to death

Date:

5 November 2009

Release No:

HSE/EM/84

A pet food manufacturer has today been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £28,380.91 costs at Northampton Crown Court after one of its workers was crushed to death at its Northamptonshire factory.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Butcher's Pet Care Ltd, of Baker Group House, Crick, over the incident in November 2003. The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

On 17 November 2003, John O'Connor, 38, from Rugby, was killed when a palletising machine at the company's factory on Crick Industrial Estate crushed him.

The machine is used to take cans of pet food from conveyor belts and stack them in layers on pallets. It is fully automatic and operated by sensors. The machine should have been fully enclosed with an interlock system to prevent anyone gaining access until the power is shut off.

HSE's investigation found that Mr O'Connor entered the caged area via a gap in the fencing created by the stair rails, to reposition a jammed pallet. When the pallet was freed, it set the machine in motion, trapping and killing Mr O'Connor.

HSE Inspector for Northamptonshire Neil Craig said:

"This tragic loss of life could have been so easily avoided if Butchers Pet Care had fulfilled their duty in law to protect the health and safety of their employees.

"This was far from this being an isolated incident. The unfenced gap between the stair rails had been there for nearly two years and it had become common practice for employees to nip through it to fix problems on the machine in an effort to keep the production line running. Any of the workers could have suffered the same fate as Mr O'Connor,

"I can only hope that this tragedy and the conviction of Butchers Pet Care Ltd will serve to remind employers to check that measures to protect workers are not just in place, but are effective.

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states, "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
2. This matter is related to the case against Philip Thompson, Operations Director at Butchers Pet Care Ltd who was fined £10,000 at Northampton Crown Court on Monday 12th October 2009 having pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, for failing to ensure the palletising machine was properly guarded.

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