North Yorkshire farmer prosecuted after worker loses limb

Date:

25 October 2010

Release No:

YH/249/10

A hired farm worker's leg had to be amputated after he attempted to clear a blockage on a harvesting machine while the blades were still rotating.

The man, (23) from Whitby, who does not wish to be named, was employed to help cut forage maize at Skipsters Hagg Farm at Appleton-le-Moors, near Pickering, on 9 November 2009.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Peter Turnbull, a partner in family-run farming firm GR Turnbull & Sons, after investigating the incident.

Scarborough Magistrates Court heard the worker was driving a silage trailer while Peter Turnbull was driving the forage harvester in the same field.

When a blockage occurred in the cutting disc of the harvester, Peter Turnbull attempted to clear the blockage by reversing the drive mechanism. When that failed, he left his seat to clear it by hand, leaving the machine running.

The hired worker came to assist but while in the process of clearing the blockage the man's leg was caught in the harvester's rotating cutting discs. The resulting injury was so serious that, paramedics including an Air Ambulance crew, made a decision to amputate the limb at the scene.

Peter Turnbull of Grange Farm, Sinnington, near York, was prosecuted by the HSE for a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Regulations 1998 for allowing someone under his control to enter a danger zone while dangerous parts were still operating. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £1,698 in costs.

After the hearing HSE inspector Charlie Callis said:

"Incidents of this kind are all too common in the farming industry, and the outcomes are inevitably equally horrific.

"Farmers are under pressure to bring in the crop and time spent shutting down and making safe a machine may, incorrectly, be considered time wasted. Taking unnecessary risks like this is never a sensible option, and Mr Turnbull could and should have done more to mitigate those risks.

"HSE is working hard to reduce deaths, injuries and ill health in agriculture, but we need farmers, farm owners and workers to do their bit by following basic safety guidelines and implementing safe working procedures at all times."

Farming is now officially the UK's most dangerous industry on a ratio of deaths and injury per size of workforce. HSE initiatives to improve safety include the award-winning Make the Promise campaign, which encourages farmers to make a pledge to 'Come Home Safe' by keeping safety in their thoughts at all times.

Visit www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/makethepromise to find out more.

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. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 11(1)(b) of the Provision and Use of Work Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken in accordance with paragraph (2) which are effective, (b) to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone."
3. Regulation 11(2) of the Provision and Use of Work Regulations 1998 states: "The measures required by paragraph (1) shall consist of: (a) the provision of fixed guards enclosing every dangerous part or rotating stock-bar where and to the extent that it is practicable to do so, but where or to the extent that it is not, then (b) the provision of other guards or protection devices where and to the extent that it is practicable to do so, but where or to the extent that it is not, then (c) the provision of jigs, holders, push-sticks or similar protection appliances used in conjunction with the machinery where and to the extent that it is practicable to do so, but where or to the extent that it is not, then (d) the provision of information, instruction, training and supervision.

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Issued on behalf of the Health & Safety Executive by COI News & PR Yorkshire and the Humber