Worker shatters leg in telehandler plunge

Date:

2 July 2010

Release No:

YH/183/10

An East Riding farm company was today fined £3,000 for misusing a telehandler and allowing a worker to plunge three metres from an unsafe grain bucket.

The long-standing employee, who does not wish to be identified, was clearing guttering on a farm building at Bainton Heights Farm, Bainton, on 14 May 2008 when the incident occurred, switching from a ladder to a telehandler to access a hard to reach section.

A colleague operated the machine and attached a grain bucket for him to stand in. However, as the bucket was raised the operator inadvertently tilted it downwards and tipped the worker out.

The 57-year-old fell three metres onto concrete below, landing on his right leg and breaking and dislocating an ankle, fracturing his shin and partially fracturing his heel. He was in hospital for more than a month, requiring extensive treatment to realign the bones.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the man's employer, R.J Baker & Co Ltd, after finding in its investigation that a guardrail fitted to the front of the bucket was effectively useless, allowing the worker to slip through an open space. The telehandler and bucket should never have been used as a lifting platform.

After the hearing HSE inspector Carol Downes said:

"This farm worker suffered horrific injuries following his fall at Bainton Heights Farm. He was extremely lucky to survive the fall, and if he had landed head-first he could easily have been killed.

"Health and Safety Executive strongly warns farmers and others against using telehandlers in this way. They, or attachments like grain buckets, are not designed to lift people, and in misusing the equipment employers are risking death or serious injury.

"This prosecution must serve as a strong reminder that farm machinery should only be used for its intended purpose."

R J Baker & Co Ltd, of Bainton Heights Farm, Bainton, pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 at Bridlington Magistrates Court. In addition to the £3,000 fine, the company was also ordered to pay £3,000 in costs.

Further information about the safe use of agricultural machinery can be found on the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture

Notes to editors

1. 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.
2. Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury."
3. Further information about working at height can be found online at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls

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