Machine supplier and university fined after worker traps arm in harvester

Date:

5 July 2010

Release No:

HSE/EM/10

A man suffered severe injuries to his arm after being dragged into a harvesting machine while working at Warwick University.

Gareth Keal, 28, from Boston, was working on a tractor-mounted bulb harvesting machine at the University's horticultural research site in Kirton, Boston when the incident happened.

Both the University of Warwick and the firm that loaned out the machinery were in court today to answer health and safety charges.

Standen Engineering Limited of Station Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 for failing to supply machinery that met essential health and safety regulations.

The University of Warwick, Coventry, pleaded guilty to beaching Regulation 11(1)(a) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

During the Health and Safety Executive prosecution, Boston Magistrates' Court heard that on 13 October 2008, agency employee Mr Keal was sorting bulbs when his hand got trapped in between rollers and he was pulled into the machine up to his shoulder.

Mr Keal suffered severe soft tissue damage to his right arm including damage to the muscles, tendons and ligaments. As a result of his injuries he needed physiotherapy for 18 months.

The machine, which had been imported, was originally a potato harvester but had been modified before being supplied by Standen Engineering Ltd.

The HSE investigation found Standen Engineering failed to ensure the harvester satisfied essential health and safety requirements by preventing exposure to moving parts of the machinery. In addition, the university failed to take measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery.

Standen Engineering was fined £800 with £1,726.71 costs while the University of Warwick was handed a £3,000 fine with £2,091.20 costs.

HSE Inspector Scott Wynne said:

"The machine was modified by Standen Engineering prior to supply and they failed to adequately assess the machinery's guarding. Following the supply of the machine, the defective guarding should have been identified by the University but despite several inspections, the lack of effective guarding of the rollers remained unnoticed.

"Companies who intend to modify machinery prior to supply must ensure that the machinery is in fact safe. Both suppliers and users must ensure that dangerous parts are adequately guarded to prevent access and to ensure that workers, like Mr Keal, are not put at risk."

Notes to editors

1. Standen Engineering Ltd was fined £800 and ordered to pay costs of £1,726.71
2. The University of Warwick was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,091.20
3. Regulation 11(1) of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 states that: "no person shall supply relevant machinery unless the requirements of regulation 12 are complied with in relation thereto."
4. Regulation 12 (1)(a) of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 states that: "the relevant machinery satisfies the relevant essential health and safety requirements."
5. Regulation 11(1)(a) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations states that: "every employer shall ensure that measures are taken to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar."
6. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

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