Perthshire malt company fined after worker loses part of leg

Date:

5 October 2011

Release No:

SCO/089/11

A national malt company, Pauls Malt Limited, has been fined after a worker had to have the lower part of his left leg amputated, when he became entangled in machinery inside a grain silo.

On 27 October 2008, Derek Kinmond was trying to fix machinery within a silo when he became caught in it at the company's premises at Sidlaw Grain Store, Sidlaw, Burrelton, Perthshire.

The grain silo was emptied using a large piece of rotating machinery known as a sweep auger. The sweep auger had not been moving around the silo so Mr Kinmond switched off the electrical supply and went into the silo on two occasions in order to attempt to release the machinery which appeared to be blocked with grain. On his third attempt he did not isolate the power to the screw auger, and whilst inside the silo, he slipped and his legs became entangled in the auger.

Mr Kidmond was taken to hospital, where his left leg was amputated below the knee. His right leg was also badly broken and is still held together by plates and pins.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that although the company had put in place procedures for working inside silos, they were not safe because there was no supervision on site to ensure that they were followed. The company used a 'Permit To Work' system which required an independent and competent person to verify that the auger was switched off before an employee entered the silo. However at the time of the incident the person nominated by the company, the site manager, had been absent for a number of months and his substitute had left the previous week.

After the hearing, HSE Principal Inspector Peter Dodd said:

"If Pauls Malt Ltd had ensured that there was a competent person on site to authorise and oversee the work being undertaken to empty the grain silo, then this incident would not have happened.

"The site manager was on long term sick leave yet no review of the company's systems of work had been carried out. Mr Kidmond should not have been left in the position to be authorising his own work.

"The duty on the employers does not simply extend to giving instructions but ensuring that the instructions are carried out."

At Perth Sheriff Court yesterday (Tuesday 4 October 2011) Pauls Malt Limited were fined £8,000 after they pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

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. 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 that: "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."
4. Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states that: "Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken which are effective to (a) prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or to (b) stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone.

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