Farm fined after worker's foot caught in machine

Date:

16 March 2011

Release No:

SCO/026/11

An Aberdeenshire farmworker's toe was severed when his foot became trapped in a fertiliser spreading machine.

The worker, Andrew Walis, 32, and Rhys Anderson, a partner in Burnton Farm, Laurencekirk, were spreading lime on a field on 24 May 2010.

The men noticed fertiliser was jamming the spreader, so Mr Anderson asked Mr Walis to stand inside the hopper of the spreader and use a broom handle to keep the fertiliser flowing smoothly, and Mr Walis did this for about an hour.

However, as the vehicle was driven over uneven ground, Mr Walis slipped and his foot got trapped in the mechanism of the spreader. He had to use his penknife to cut his boot and sock off and free his foot.

Such was the damage to Mr Walis's foot, a toe had to be amputated and two others were seriously injured. He needed a skin graft and spent a week in hospital after the incident, and was off work for 3 months.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the farm did not provide or maintain a safe system of work in relation to the spreading of the lime.

Today at Stonehaven Sheriff Court the family partnership that operates Burnton Farms of Burnton, Aberdeenshire, pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and were fined £8,000.

HSE Inspector John Radcliffe said:

"Mr Walis' life will always be affected by this totally avoidable incident.

"He should never have been asked to put his safety at risk by standing inside the machine so close to the moving parts without any protection.

"If his employers had used their common sense it would have been clear that they were asking Mr Walis to do something very unsafe and he was likely to be injured."

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. http://www.hse.gov.uk/
2. In Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has sole responsibility for the raising of criminal proceedings for breaches of health and safety legislation.
3. 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."

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